ABSTRACT
Political scientists have been sceptical to the usefulness of theorizing about formal organizations "as such", i.e. generic models assumed to be applicable across all formal organizations. The state of mutual disregard is surprising because there are important parallels between the questions raised in political science and in organization theory. Students of politics have always been interested in how the political organization of a society contributes to the well-being of citizens. Political institutions have been seen as preconditions for a civilized society. The transfer of the professional basis of organization theory to business schools and lately also to private consulting firms has probably contributed to the alienation of political scientists from organization theory. The predominant doctrine of organizational decision-making is rational choice. Organizational behavior is understood as the result of choices made by a rational, well-informed, unitary and value maximizing decision-maker. Observations made by empirical students of organizational decision-making suggest several modifications of the model of rational choice.
