ABSTRACT
How are we to understand the behavior of elected representatives? For two decades the dominant approach in legislative research has been to portray representatives as purposive actors who calculate rationally in order to achieve their goals. 1 While the rational-actor approach is certainly a powerful one, there is no lack of criticism regarding the philosophical assumptions underlying the model. 2 Perhaps the most serious criticism, however, has to do with our understanding of real-world politics. The ‘as if’ strategy routinely applied means that most rational-actor analyses rest on assumptions about politicians’ motivations which are stipulated rather than empirically examined. 3 Those who are not content with accurate predictions, 4 and who instead want well-developed, empirically verifiable explanations, will remain unsatisfied. 5
