ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shows first, why those using the rational choice approach have had so much success constructing theories of democratic politics; and second, which parts of this theoretical literature can be most easily and fruitfully adapted to the context of politics in developing and newly democratic countries. In contrast to most arguments in the dependency, new institutionalise and comparative historical sociology traditions, rational choice arguments use the individual, or some analogue of the individual, as the unit of analysis. They assume that individuals, including politicians, are rational in the sense that, given goals and alternative strategies from which to choose, they will select the alternatives that maximize their chances of achieving their goals. Factors that shape first-order preferences, goals, are outside the deductive structure of rational choice models, but goals, nevertheless, play a crucial role in rational choice arguments.
