Political rationality reconsidered: Notes on an integrated evaluative scheme for policy choices

Abstract

This essay deals with the concept and problem of political rationality. Following the ancient conception that the absence or presence of rationality manifests itself in choice situations, we try to explore at first the specific characteristics of political choice, then turn to a discussion of the criteria for rationality, considering process, goal contents and structure criteria, point to the restrictions for rationality analytically inherent in any choice structure, and try in the end to make clear the difference between these analytical (i.e. principally unremovable) restrictions and the (principally removable) "confining conditions" (Kirchheimer) for rational political choices provided by the circumstances of present-day politics.

The Political Relevance of Planners’ Analysis: The Case of a Parliamentary Standing Committee

“…Elster (1987) casts doubt on the possibility of rational politics by invoking the impossibility theorems of social choice theory. In the planning literature, the notion of political (or policy making) rationality has long been critiqued in the tradition of Herbert Simon and Charles Lindblom (see Grauhan and Strubelt, 1971;Gershuny, 1978). Recently, a strand of studies on political rationality has grown out of Foucault's concept of governmental rationality or 'governmentality' (Beeson and Firth, 1998;Ouellette, 1999).…”

The Evaluation of Organizational Policy Making: A Political Model

“…As has already been indicated, value conflict serves to distinguish policy decisions from administrative decisions (Grauhan & Strubelt, 1971). Policy choice, therefore, may be viewed as a process of value resolution among competing political actors.…”