Showing papers on "Rationality published in 1997"

Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making

Abstract: Policy making is a political struggle over values and ideas. By exposing the paradoxes that underlie even seemingly straightforward policy decisions, Policy Paradox shows students that politics cannot be cleansed from the process in favor of "rationality." Author Deborah Stone has fully revised and updated this popular text, which now includes many paradoxes that have arisen since September 11. Examples throughout the book have been updated, and the prose has been streamlined to make a great read even better.

Modeling Bounded Rationality

Abstract: The notion of bounded rationality was initiated in the 1950s by Herbert Simon; only recently has it influenced mainstream economics. In this book, Ariel Rubinstein defines models of bounded rationality as those in which elements of the process of choice are explicitly embedded. The book focuses on the challenges of modeling bounded rationality, rather than on substantial economic implications. In the first part of the book, the author considers the modeling of choice. After discussing some psychological findings, he proceeds to the modeling of procedural rationality, knowledge, memory, the choice of what to know, and group decisions. In the second part, he discusses the fundamental difficulties of modeling bounded rationality in games. He begins with the modeling of a game with procedural rational players and then surveys repeated games with complexity considerations. He ends with a discussion of computability constraints in games. The final chapter includes a critique by Herbert Simon of the author's methodology and the author's response.

Rational decision-making and firm performance: the moderating role of environment

Abstract: This study investigates the moderating roles of environmental munificence and dynamism in the relationship between process rationality and organizational performance. Based on a sample of 62 manufacturing firms, the study found that environmental munificence and dynamism moderate the relationship between rationality and performance. Further, the study found that rationality is strongly associated with performance in environments high in munificence and dynamism. © 7997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The relationship between rationality in strategic decision processes and firm performance has been a subject of continuing controversy in the strategic management field. One school of thought favors the 'rational comprehensive' approach (Ansoff, 1965). Another feels that an 'incremental political' approach offers better descriptive accuracy and normative validity (Quinn, 1980). In recent years, the emphasis has moved away from a search for universal relationships that juxtapose these two ideal types to a focus on the context specificity of the rationality-performance relationship. Empirical research on the perfonnance implications of the comprehensiveness of decision processes has yielded confiicting results. In a recent review of this literature, Rajagopalan, Rasheed, and Datta point out that 'most previous studies have focused on one aspect of the

Ideology: A Definitional Analysis:

Abstract: What does "ideology" mean? As a preliminary step to answering this muchasked question, I collected what seemed to be the most thoughtful and/or influential definitions circulating within the social sciences in the postwar decades. 1 A quick perusal of these definitions reveals the extent to which ideology remains a highly flexible conceptual tool (see Table 1). One is struck not only by the cumulative number of different attributes that writers find essential, but by their more than occasional contradictions. To some, ideology is dogmatic, while to others it carries connotations of political sophistication; to some it refers to dominant modes of thought, and to others it refers primarily to those most alienated by the status quo (e.g., revolutionary movements and parties). To some it is based in the concrete interests of a social class, while to others it is characterized by an absence of economic self-interest. One could continue, but the point is already apparent: not only is ideology farflung, it also encompasses a good many definitional traits which are directly at odds with one another. Indeed, it has become customary to begin any discussion of ideology with some observation concerning its semantic promiscuity.2 Few concepts in the social science lexicon have occasioned so much discussion, so much disagreement, and so much selfconscious discussion of the disagreement, as "ideology." Condemned time and again for its semantic excesses, for its bulbous unclarity, the concept of ideology remains, against all odds, a central term of social science discourse. How, then, are we to understand this semantic confusion, and how are we to deal with it? Five common approaches can be identified among writers in the social sciences: operationalization, terminological reshuffling, intellectual history, etiology and multivocality. In the following section, I outline each of these endeavors and demonstrate their limitations. I then proceed to a new approach which comprehensively maps the meanings of ideology onto a single, reasonably concise, semantic grid. I conclude with a brief discussion of "core" meanings for ideology, and a plea for context-dependent methods of definition. COMMON APPROACHES 1. Operationalization Among those who study "behavior" in American politics, discussion of ideology has centered on a single empirical question: how ideological is the mass public (compared, that is, with political elites)? There have been a good many twists and turns in this debate since it was introduced by Campbell et al. (1960), McClosky et al. (1960), Converse (1964), and McClosky (1964). But the debate over the ideological proclivities of the mass public does not seem much closer to resolution today than it did in the 1960s.3 The reason for this lack of resolution has something to do with problems of data incommensurability through time and differing methods of operationalizing variables, as generally recognized. Less often recognized are the various problems of definition inherent in the concept of ideology. Is an "ideological" mode of thought characterized by abstraction, internal consistency, external contrast, endurance through time, rationality, sophistication, a hierarchical ordering of idea-elements, parsimony-or some combination of these characteristics? Is it separate from group affiliation and/or party affiliation? Such questions, which merely scratch the surface of scholarly debate among behavioralists, are "definitional" in the sense that no answer can claim a priori precedence over another. Each definitional attribute may, of course, be operationalized in different ways, raising a second tier of disputes. Indeed, some writers take the position that definitional tasks are contained within-and rightfully subservient to-tasks of operationalization. "It matters primarily not what you call it, but how you measure it," is the implicit approach of many behavioralists. Although there is surely much to be said for a pragmatic/ empirical approach to concept definition, this has not proven an entirely successful strategy in the instant case. …

The Myth of the Framework : In Defence of Science and Rationality

Abstract: In a literary career spanning 60 years, Sir Karl Popper has made important contributions to the 20th century discussion of science and rationality. In so doing, he has attacked intellectual fashions like positivism which exaggerate what science and rationality have done, and, at the same time, intellectual fashions like relativism which denigrate what science and rationality can do. Popper regards scientific knowledge as one of the greatest and most creative of human achievements. But he regards it, at the same time, as inherently fallible and subject to revision for these reasons, "The Myth of the Framework" is not a defence of the scientific method, expert knowledge, "Big Science", or the scientific institution - but a defence of science and the rational tradition against fashionable distortions of its aims and ideals. The essays in this book discuss such issues as the aims of science, the role that it plays in our civilization, the moral responsibiliby of the scientist, the function of a university, and the perennial choice between reason and revolution. Popper emphasizes that science and rationality are what enable humans to free themselves from prejudices.

Existential consumption and irrational desire

Abstract: In postmodernity, consumption is a prime site for the negotiation of conflicting themes of freedom and control. Explores the consumption of symbolic meaning through five consumption dialectics: the material versus the symbolic, the social versus the self, desire versus satisfaction, rationality versus irrationality, and creativity versus constraint. Argues that consumers are engaged in authentic choices in the construction and communication of self and social meanings, and that these consumption choices can be conceptualized as the exercise of existential freedom, even if constrained by inequalities in the economic system and by ideological hegemony.

Issues in automated negotiation and electronic commerce: extending the contract net framework

Abstract: In this paper we discuss a number of previously unaddressed issues that arise in automated negot/ation among self-interested agents whose rationality is bounded by computational complexity. These issues are presented in the context of iterative task allocation negotiations. First, the reasons why such agents need to be able to choose the stage and level of commitment dynamically are identified. A protocol that allows such choices through conditional commitment breaking penalties is presented. Next, the implications of bounded rationality are analysed. Several tradeoffs between allocated computation and negotiation benefits and risk are enumerated, and the necessity of explicit local deliberation control is substantiated. Techniques for linking negotiation items and multiagent contracts are presented as methods for escaping local optima in the task allocation process. Implementing both methods among self-interested bounded rational agents is discussed. Finally, the problem of message congestion among self-interested agents is described, and alternative remedies are presented.

Risk theory in epidemic times: sex, drugs and the social organisation of ‘risk behaviour’

Abstract: 'Risk' and 'risk behaviour' have become keywords in discourses about AIDS. Notions of risk behaviour in the field of HIV prevention and the addictions largely derive from epidemiological categorisations which have had a key role in constructing lay and scientific understandings of the 'problems' of AIDS and injecting drug use. This has encouraged a restricted vision which inadequately captures risk as it is understood and experienced by drug users themselves. Drawing on case examples from qualitative research with illicit drug users, this paper explores the utility of current theories of risk behaviour in understanding how risk behaviour is socially organised. Two key developments in risk behaviour theory are examined. These are situated rationality and social action theories. Findings illustrate that situated rationality theories tend to be conceptually limited to an analysis of individual rationality which fails to capture the distribution and influence of power in negotiated actions and the habituated nature of risk behaviour. In contrast, social action theories aim to understand the interplay of social factors which give rise to individuals' situated risk perceptions and actions. Findings highlight the important role that qualitative research plays in questioning, as well as complementing, dominant scientific constructions of risk. Future theories of risk behaviour in the field of HIV prevention, as well as other health domains, need to consider risk as a socially organised rather than individual phenomenon. The paper concludes by asserting that understanding what risk actually means to participants themselves provides the necessary data for public health interventions to create the conditions where risk reduction becomes possible

Free markets and social justice

Abstract: The newest work from one of the most pre-eminent voices writing in the legal/political arena today, this important book presents a new conception of the relationship between free markets and social justice The work begins with foundations-the appropriate role of existing "preferences," the importance of social norms, the question whether human goods are commensurable, and issues of distributional equity Continuing with rights, the work shows that markets have only a partial but instrumental role in the protection of rights The book concludes with a discussion on regulation, developing approaches that would promote both economic and democratic goals, especially in the context of risks to life and health Free Markets and Social Justice develops seven basic themes during its discussion: the myth of laissez-faire; preference formation and social norms; the contextual character of choice; the importance of fair distribution; the diversity of human goods; how law can shape preferences; and the puzzles of human rationality As the latest word from an internationally-renowned writer, this work will raise a number of important questions about economic analysis of law in its conventional form

Collective memory and cultural constraint : Holocaust myth and rationality in German politics

Abstract: Using a case study of official representations of the Holocaust in the Federal Republic of Germany, the authors address the ways in which collective memory constrains political claim-making. In contrast to the commonly held views that the past is either durable or malleable, they characterize collective memory in political culture as an ongoing process of negotiation through time. They distinguish between mythic and rational political cultural logics, and delineate mechanisms through which these logics operate as constraints : taboo and prohibition, duty and requirement. With these conceptual distinctions, they describe transformations in the memory of the Holocaust as a constraint in German political culture

Advances in Economics and Econometrics: Theory and Applications

Abstract: 1. Trade and wages Paul Krugman 2. Politics and trade policy Elhanan Helpman 3. Economic analysis of political institutions: an introduction Roger Myerson 4. Game theoretic models of market structure John Sutton 5. Rationality and knowledge in game theory Eddie Dekel and Faruk Gul 6. Experiments and the economics of individual decision making under risk and uncertainty John D. Hey 7. Theory and experiment in the analysis of strategic interaction Vincent Crawford 8. Evolutionary game theory in economics Michihiro Kandori 9. Learning from learning in economics Ramon Marimon.

Recurrent Hyperinflations and Learning

Abstract: This paper uses a model of boundedly rational learning to account for the observations of recurrent hyperinflations in the last decade. We study a standard monetary model where the fully rational expectations assumption is replaced by a formal definition of quasi-rational learning. The model under learning is able to match remarkably well some crucial stylized facts observed during the recurrent hyperinflations experienced by several countries in the 80's. We argue that, despite being a small departure from rational expectations, quasi-rational learning does not preclude falsifiability of the model and it does not violate reasonable rationality requirements.

An Empirically Based Microeconomics

Abstract: Preface First lecture: rationality in decision making: 1.1. Development of the concept of rationality 1.2. Contemporary choice theory 1.3. The plurality of rationalities 1.4. The history reviewed 1.5. Empirical tests of theories 1.6. References 1.7. Debate of the first lecture Andrea Ichino, Luigi Pasinetti Second lecture: the role of organisations in an economy: 2.1. Organisations and markets 2.2. Altruism and organisational identification 2.3. Organization, management and the economy 2.4. Conclusion 2.5. References 2.6. Debate of the second lecture Third lecture: empirical evidence for economics: 3.1. How much theory, and how concrete 3.2. Implications of data for theory 3.3.The sources of data on economic processes 3.4. Seeking empirical data outside the business firm 3.5. Decision making in the business firm: case studies 3.6. Economic history 3.7. Data from 'applied' economics 3.8. Survey techniques 3.9. Conclusion 3.10. References 3.11. Debate of the third lecture Fabio Arcangeli, Anna Grandori, Andrea Ichino, Daniele Terlizze Comments: Claudio Dematte, Massimo Egidi, Robert Marris, Aldo Montesano, Riccardo Viale Simon's reply Herbert A. Simon's autobiographical sketch.

The frontiers of the new institutional economics

Abstract: Theoretical Foundations: D.C. North, Prologue. R.W. Fogel, Douglass C. North and Economic Theory. Economic History: P.T. Hoffman and J.-L. Rosenthal, The Political Economy of Warfare and Taxation in Early Modern Europe: Historical Lessons for Economic Development. A. Greif, On the Interrelations and Economic Implications of Economic, Social, Political and Normative Factors: Reflections From Two Late Medieval Societies. S.L. Engerman, Cultural Values, Ideological Beliefs, and Changing Labor Institutions: Notes on Their Interactions. J.V.C. Nye, Thinking About the State: Property Rights, Trade, and Changing Contractual Arrangements in a World with Coercion. Institutions and Political Economy: L.J. Alston, G.D. Libecap, B. Mueller, Violence and the Development of Property Rights to Land in the Brazilian Amazon. J. Ensminger, Changing Property Rights: Reconciling Formal and Informal Rights to Land in Africa. R.H. Bates and K.A. Shepsle, Intertemporal Institutions. B.R. Weingast, The Political Foundations of Limited Government: Parliament and Sovereign Debt in 17th- and 18th-Century England. J.N. Drobak, Credible Commitment in the United States: Substantive and Structural Limits on the Avoidance of Public Debt. Learning, Cognition and Rationality: A. Clark, Economic Reason: The Interplay of Individual Learning and External Structure. W.B. Arthur, Beyond Rational Expectations: Indeterminancy in Economic and Financial Markets. P.A. David and W.C. Sanderson, Making Use of Treacherous Advice: Cognitive Process, Bayesian Adaptation, and the Tenacity of Unreliable Knowledge. Index.

Everyday Evaluation on the Run

Abstract: Over the past decade, the idea of a 'culture of evaluation' or of research has become widespread. Where once it had to be argued that people's everyday evaluative thinking and feeling rationality had legitimacy, this is now largely considered unremarkable. And where once people's input was seen as essentially 'biased', stakeholder involvement is now considered essential, both as a source of experiential 'data' as well as for its users' own successfully reflexive practice. Indeed, the codes of conduct of the world's evaluation societies now mandate it as part of fully professional practice. The sequel to this book, Building in Research and Evaluation: Human Inquiry for Living Systems, describes a deep rationale for why this should be so.

New Challenges to the Rationality Assumption

Abstract: In contrast to logical criteria of rationality, which can be assessed entirely by reference to the system of preferences, substantive criteria of rational choice refer to an independent evaluation of the outcomes of decisions. One of these substantive criteria is the experienced hedonic utility of outcomes. Research indicates that people are myopic in their decisions, may lack skill in predicting their future tastes, and can be led to erroneous choices by fallible memory and incorrect evaluation of past experiences. Theoretical and practical implications of these challenges to the assumption of economic rationality are discussed.

The New Capitalism and Organizational Rationality: The Adoption of Downsizing Programs, 1979–1994

Abstract: Since a new capitalism dominates economic life in America, we need to explain the development of the new economy's features. Although such work has begun, a core feature of the economy, downsizing has been understudied, even though this phenomenon has eliminated some ten million U.S. jobs and generally has had negative human and organizational effects. In particular little effort has been made to explore why firms downsize in the first place. Therefore, in this article the author examines the causes of the adoption of downsizing programs among Fortune 100 firms from 1979 to 1994. The author shows that downsizings are affected by variables measuring crises and decisive events (associated with the new capitalism) - shareholder values, foreign consolidations, market share, productivity, employee compensation, deregulation, and business peaks; by institutional forces - the adoption effect and industry culture; and by firm traits - ownership status and firm size. The author also distinguishes between economically oriented and socially oriented organizational action in addressing the rationality of downsizers

Artificial Knowing: Gender and the Thinking Machine

Abstract: From the Publisher: In Artificial Knowing, Alison Adam boldly challenges the Artificial Intelligence (AI) view of the world which prescribes the masculine as the norm and excludes other knowers and knowledge, specifically women. Adam fills a large gap in science and technology studies by showing us how gender is inscribed in AI-based computer systems. By locating feminist theory in relation to science and technology studies, Adam argues that feminist epistemology, in its treatment of the knowing subject and the nature of knowledge, rationality and language, can make a serious contribution to and provide a richer critique of AI.

A Critique of Adjudication (fin de siecle)

Abstract: This book explores the role of political ideology, in the simple sense of, say, "liberalism" and "conservatism," or "states' rights" and "abolitionism," in law making. I argue that judicial law making has been the vehicle of ideological projects, just as legislative work is such a vehicle, although ideologically oriented legal work is different from ideologically oriented legislative work. It is sometimes plain that judges experience themselves as constrained by the doctrinal materials to reach particular solutions, even if they work in a medium saturated with ideology. But they always aim to generate a particular rhetorical effect through this work: that of the legal necessity of their solutions without regard to ideology. They work for this effect against our knowledge of the ineradicable possibility of strategic behavior in interpretation, by which I mean the externally motivated, ideological choice to work to develop a particular solution rather than another. Adjudication has at least three ideological effects. First, the diffusion of law-making power reduces the power of ideologically organized majorities, whether liberal or conservative, to bring about significant change in any subject-matter area heavily governed by law. It empowers the legal fractions of intelligensias to decide the outcomes of ideological conflict among themselves, outside the legislative process. And it increases the appearance of naturalness, necessity, and relative justice of the status quo, whatever it may be, over what would prevail under a more transparent regime. In each case, adjudication functions to secure both particular ideological and general class interests of the intelligensia in the social and economic status quo. Adjudication also sustains the belief that rights exist. The critique of adjudication has sometimes been implicated in the loss of faith in rights. Finally, our ambivalent belief in the possibility of legal rationality reinforces the notion that there are expert discourses to which a practitioner can pledge faith, not just outside but against ideology.

Emotion and the Arts

Abstract: This collection presents new essays on emotion and its relation to the arts contributed from fifteen leading aestheticians. The essays will consider such topics as the paradox of fiction, emotion in the pure and abstract arts, and the rationality and ethics of emotional responses to art. Among the contributors are such noted authors as Kendal Walton, Rom Harre, Robert Solomon, and Jerrold Levinson.

A racionalidade substantiva demonstrada na prática administrativa

Abstract: Under the general perspective of human's emancipation at work, this article analyzes the rationality in productive organizations through a substantive boarding, according to the proposal of Guerreiro Ramos. It shows the complementarity between the Guerreiro's proposition and the theory of communicative action, created by Habermas. It also propose an analytical board, that examines empiricaly three companies in Salvador, Bahia, aiming to demonstrate how either substantive and instrumental rationalities came true. Finalr. the author defines substantive organizations and establishes a scale of intensity, that jointly with the analytical board, could be useful to examine the rationality of any productive organization.

Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory: A Critique

Abstract: Introduction Individual Rationality versus Collective Rationality Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories Critique of Rational Choice Theory's Explanation of Social Relationships Rational Systems of Organization and Rational Choice Economic Theories of Organizations Criticisms of Rational Choice Models

Why Environmental Policy Nightmares Recur

Abstract: Many natural resource and environmental policy issues evidence recurring choices, made with considerable effort, whose temporary solutions never seem to deal with the underlying problems. Drawing on examples from endangered species policy, I describe five behavioral tendencies of humans and human insti- tutions that result in recurrent environmental policy problems, including poor long-term direction, delays, im- passes, and piecemeal solutions to crosscutting problems. These tendencies are short-term rationality outcom- peting long-term rationality, competitive behavior driving out cooperative behavior, fragmentation of interests and values, fragmentation of responsibilities and authorities, and fragmentation of information and knowledge. By understanding these tendencies, it is possible to frame policy solutions to them. This paper identifies a set of necessary responses including finding ways to bind current decisionmakers to the future, promoting creativity and risk-taking on the part of public resource management organizations, utilizing al- ternative dispute resolution mechanisms that foster cooperation, building political concurrence, utilizing co- ordinating mechanisms, instituting clear performance measures, and implementing ways to promote infor- mation flows between organizations.

Politics and governmentality

Abstract: In his writings on government foucault commonly uses term ‘political’ as if it were equivalant to a certain understanding of governmental. Thus, in the title of his cotribution to the Tanner Lectures on Human Values, ‘Omnes et Singulatim, towards a criticism of ”political reason“, the object of Foucault's usage of the term ‘political’ to refer to a kind of govrmetal reason. Second, I argue that the practice of what Foucault understands by political reason in fact creates coditions for the emergence of a politics and a political reason of a very different kind. The appearance of this latter political reason poses a range of problems which must be addressed by any political (in the sense of governmental) reason but which play little part in Foucault's discussion. It Suggests, in particular, that Foucault's account of the liberal rationality of government is seriously incomplete. Third, I consider the grounds for Foucault's counterposition of political reason to liberation, noting that his critique of politi...

Thick Rationality and the Missing "Brute Fact": The Limits of Rationalist Incorporations of Norms and Ideas

Abstract: Anomalies and problems internal to the basic "thin" version of rational choice theory, together with the absence of persuasive endogenous resolutions, have led many rationalist analysts to "thicken" thin rationality by incorporating norms and ideas into their analyses. This essay analyzes the sources, manifestations, and limitations of this ideational turn in rational choice theory. It delineates and critiques four rationalist incorporations of norms and three rationalist incorporations of ideas. Yet all of these thick-rational analyses do not adequately explain the "brute fact" that largely enables norms and ideas to affect the behavior of actors. Recently, however, some rationalist analysts have advanced an alternative approach that incorporates cultural and communicative factors into rationalist analysis This "interpretive rationality" (or a related "cognitive rationality") merits further investigation because it directly analyzes the "brute fact" in ways that "thick rationality" cannot.