Preference,Behavior And Structure:Three Dimensions Of Rational Choice Institutionalism

As the leading paradigm in new institutionalism politics and even comparative politics,rational choice institutionalism has been controversial since its establishment in 1970s.The controversial contents include school orientation,rational path and future prospects.At the same time,the academic research on rational choice institutionalism mostly focuses on the theoretical resources of new institutional economics,the shaping role of rational choice theory,and the calculation ways different from historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism,or typical theoretical assumptions.In a word,the academic circles lack a relatively clear analytical framework for the investigation of rational choice institutionalism.Based on the existing research,this paper summarizes the core issues of rational choice institutionalism as preference,behavior and structure.The adjustment of the focus of these three dimensions also shows the changing process of the focus issues.More importantly,preference,behavior and structure are actually the research approaches of rational choice institutionalism,in which preference constitutes an important research starting point,behavior is the basic object of analysis,and structure not only reflects the result of behavior but also reshapes behavior and preference.Preference constitutes the research starting point of rational choice institutionalism,which focuses on the psychological tendency of individuals when implementing certain behaviors.Preference in the sense of rational institutionalism has a transformation process from fixed preference to endogenous preference,and the latest trend is the belief formed by integrating abilities,opportunities and ideas.Fixed preference is the key component of the hypothesis of economic man,and it is inherited by rational choice institutionalism through rational choice theory,which promotes the latter to establish a typical calculation way in institutional research.Fixed preference revolves around the maximization of personal self-interest,showing prominent self-interest and instrumentality,and this preference is stable and transferable.The value of fixed preference hypothesis lies in ensuring the analytical approach of rational choice path,affirming that behavior analysis should at least be traced back to the level of preference as a psychological state,but it also ignores diversified influencing factors and individual differences of preferences.The existing problems of fixed preference and the new progress of preference research in the field of social science have prompted rational choice institutionalism to turn to endogenous preference.Endogenous preference means that the actor’s preference needs to be understood in a specific institutional environment,historical background and cultural context.Many factors comprehensively influence the formation of personal preference,and preferences are dynamic and specific,which often have different forms in specific situations.The rise of endogenous preference research means that rational choice institutionalism and the economics behind it begin to regard preference itself as a problem that needs to be explained,which also forms a consistent concern with historical institutionalism.From the perspective of development trends,rational choice institutionalism and economics have begun to use beliefs to replace controversial preferences.Beliefs are closer to the combination of preferences and abilities,opportunities,ideas,etc.,and when beliefs are shared and maintained by a certain group,they constitute a system in people’s minds in a substantial sense.It is the basic research object of behavior rational choice institutionalism,and even regarded as the only trustworthy analysis object.The basic problem of rational choice institutionalism is the interaction between system and behavior.Corresponding to the change from fixed preference to endogenous preference,the behavior analysis of rational choice institutionalism changed from rational choice to perceptual choice.As a classic hypothesis inherited from economics,the rational choice hypothesis advocates that human behavior should be aimed at maximizing self-utility,and it is believed that this hypothesis can explain all human behaviors and all related decisions.The early rational choice institutionalism regarded the actors in the political world as rational economic men,so as to analyze individuals’ self-interest behavior under institutional constraints.This school is also called the rational choice path in institutional research.Perceptual choice examines those behaviors that are not in line with economic rationality but are understandable,and seeks for culture,emotion,identity,etc.in sociological sense for these understandable behaviors.Perceptual choice urges economics to attach importance to the pluralistic theory in social science,and also marks the expansion of the behavior analysis category of rational choice institutionalism,from rational choice behavior to understandable behavior composed of rational choice and perceptual choice.It is noteworthy that the rise of behavioral economics has brought the theory and method of cognitive science to rational choice institutionalism,and focused on the analysis of the influence of the process of brain processing information on human behavior.Dimension is one of the basic signs of new institutionalism politics,which reveals the new institutionalism identity and political orientation of rational choice institutionalism.The tension between structure and initiative runs through the development process of rational choice institutionalism.The structural dimension of rational choice institutionalism also has a process of adjustment of the center of gravity.In the early stage,emphasis was placed on the reshaping of rational choice behavior by structure,and then the initiative under structural regulation was emphasized.The future trend was concentrated in the institutional logic of rational choice path.The affirmation of the regulatory function of institutional structure is the key point for the rational choice theory to turn to rational choice institutionalism.The early theoretical focus of this school also focused on how and to what extent the structure changed the choices of individuals and collectives.However,for the multi-oriented new institutionalism politics,the typical feature of rational choice institutionalism is initiative,which is also called "actor-centered institutionalism",and it is presented in the basic role of the school’s national theory and individual perspective.Furthermore,rational choice institutionalism absorbs the examination of institutional logic in the social science field,realizes that the influence of culture on people is actually fragmented,and explores the institutional logic of rational choice path under the comprehensive effect of culture,cognition and structure.Generally speaking,grasping rational choice institutionalism from the three dimensions of preference,behavior and structure has certain theoretical contributions and insufficient research.Preference,behavior and structure not only respectively summarize a major focus of rational choice institutionalism,but also constitute a strong analytical framework of this school,and show its vibrant development prospects in interdisciplinary research.The deficiency of three dimensions is that they may have conflicts on which one is dominant and the order.Accepting multiple orientations may weaken the identity of schools,and there are certain applicability problems.