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Rational choice theory and social research

2016; Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Volume: 58; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2298/soc1604598k

2406-0712

Bojan Krstić, Miloš Krstić,

European Union Policy and Governance

The paper is devoted to the analyses of methodological and metatheoretical problems of rational choice theory. The methodological challenge is associated with the questions: whether rational choice theory can be appropriately empirically tested and whether RCT allows researchers to derive interesting hypotheses with regard to substantive fields of application? The answers to these questions have important implications for the rational choice theory?s ambition to be appropriate basis for the implementation of social research. In this paper, allso, we analyse the following metatheoretical problems: how to deal with the apparent counterevidence that stems from applied fields of sociological research: Is it possible to provide explanations of this evidence within RCT by widening its core assumptions and thereby broadening the set of allowed auxiliary assumptions? Or does RCT have to be enriched (and if so, how?) by integrating concepts and mechanisms of other sociological approaches for it to remain a reasonable workhorse and starting point for sociological research?