The economic approach to politics - what is it and how useful is it in explaining political behaviour?; rational choice theory and the social sciences; reason and regulation in economic theory; rationality and frustration in political behaviour; human agency and rational action; rational choice as a reconstructive theory; social values and democracy; the rational actor approach to politics - science, self interest and normative democratic theory; rational actor theory, social norms and policy implementation - applications to administrative processes and bureaucratic culture; self interest and democratic theory; rationality, markets and political analysis - a social psychological critique of neoclassical political economy; contrasting rational and psychological analyses of political choice - an economist's perspective, or why cognitive psychology does not explain democratic politics; the relational boundaries of rationality; rational choice theory and institutions; rationality and interpretation - parliamentary elections in early Stuart England; altruism and the theory of rational action - an analysis of rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe; incomplete coercion - how social preferences mix with private preferences; rational maximizing in economic theories of politics.
