RATIONAL CHOICE AND POLITICAL POWER

by Keith Dowding

This illuminating title applies rational choice theory to the power debate, demonstrating the fallacious arguments of all sides. Power is analysed as a bargaining game where the power of actors is assessed in terms of the resources to which they have access. By distinguishing luck from power it shows that many groups widely regarded as powerful are merely lucky, albeit as a result of systematic features of society.

This is one of the first conceptual books on power directly to engage both classical and modern empirical debates on the power structure at both the local and national level.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1991

About the author

Keith Martin Dowding (born 6 May 1960), is Professor of Political Science in Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia arriving from the London School of Economics, UK in 2007. He has published widely in the fields of public choice, public administration, public policy, British politics, comparative politics, urban political economy, positive political theory and normative political philosophy. His work is informed by social and rational choice theories. He edited the Journal of Theoretical Politics (Sage) from 1996 to 2012.