ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Uskali Maki's concepts of "good" and "bad" imperialism to investigate the "economics imperialism" thesis. It chapter argues three points. First, alleged "economics imperialism" is better described as "rational choice imperialism" because there is a disciplinary break between the earlier schools of classical and neoclassical economics versus game theory. Second, following Maki, the advances and imperializing power of rational choice is derivational, rather than epistemological, conciliatory, or ontological. Third, the stakes of accurately identifying and even resisting rational choice imperialism follow from it potentially reflecting a type of politically motivated imperialism that may not contribute to scientific understanding. Steve Clarke and Adrian Walsh recognize that some forms of disciplinary imperialism dismiss alternative manners of inquiry, and potentially inform common-sense views of valid or appropriate social ontologies. The chapter also argues that the concept of imperialism through derivational unification is particularly relevant to the type of expansion characterized by rational choice.
