ABSTRACT
One of the key objectives of the international human rights movement is to institutionalize adherence to human rights principles in societies around the world. This chapter elaborates that the rational-choice theory and its core methodological principle, structural individualism, offers a valuable contribution to the human rights paradigm in general and explains variations in the institutionalization of human rights in particular. The respective interpretations of the core assumptions vary substantially between rational-choice approaches and all of them share the conviction that rationality, preferences, and individualism are crucial categories needed to explain human behavior and societal development. Flexibility in the interpretation of core assumptions makes rational-choice theory a broad and highly diverse theoretical paradigm integrating such distinct approach as neoclassical economics and social-rationality conceptualizations. Thus, an analysis of individual rationality implies the consideration of the available information and beliefs, of goals and preferences, and of opportunity/constraint structures simultaneously and in relation to each other.
