Take Home Exam: Rational Choice Tradition

The format for this exam is short essay, by which I mean answers that are 100-200 words. Each of the questions given below are worth 10 points. I expect that you will do your own work (this is not group project). Papers with identical or similar wording will be regarded with suspicion. Answers must be typed. If you cite Collins or any other source, you must provide a parenthetical citation that includes the authors’ name and the page cited.

In terms of grading, I am simply looking for the right answers. Admittedly, there are more questions than last time, but the answers I am looking for are a lot more compact.

Due: beginning of class, 10/19

1. For the rational choice tradition, social order emerges as the result of exchanges undertaken by self-interested individuals. Explain how the epistemology of John Locke provides a philosophical basis for this approach to social inquiry.
2. How does Locke’s understanding of consciousness differs from Marx’s? How does this contrast reflect differences between the conflict tradition and the rational choice tradition?
3. Explain how the rational choice conception of the state differs from the conception of the state advanced by Marxism.
4. Once again, a central contention of the rational choice tradition is that social order emerges from underlying patterns of exchange. How does this apply to the following situations:
• “the rating dating complex” in a high school
• The social order of Radford’s POW camp
5. Rational choice theorist argue that cultural attitudes emerge from underlying exchange relationships. How do male and female cultures of sexuality and love reflect this contention?
6. With Adam Smith’s invisible hand, individuals pursue their self interest and end up serving one another’s needs. Sometimes, however, individual rationality leads to results that, at the aggregate level, are highly undesirable. Provide an example of this latter outcome.
7. Apply prisoner’s dilemma to the following situations:
• The United States and the Soviet Union, during the cold war, negotiating an arms control agreement.
• OPEC countries today, negotiating an agreement to limit the supply of oil.
8. Collins says that the rational choice tradition can serve as a guide to effective policy. Why is this? Provide an example of a policy (real or fictitious) which appears to draw upon the rational choice tradition.
9. According to Olson, it is a wrong to think that groups pursue their self interests in the same way that individuals do. Why is this the case?
10. From a neorationalist point of view, social actors try to satisfice rather optimize. A neorationalist who believes that global warming is a serious problem is likely to take a dim view of the future. Why is this?