Hegemony in Mirage: Rational Choice in Taiwan’s Political Studies
Author: Jih-wen Lin
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
The purpose of this article is to depict the role played by rational choice inTaiwan’s political studies. It reviews the debate about rational choice and specifiesthe definition of this approach, and then examines more than 1500 articles publishedin the past few years by Taiwan’s leading political science journals. The percentageof articles minimally related to rational choice is roughly 10%, many of which aremethodological discussions rather than applicatory. Some rational choice articlesutilized statistics to confirm their hypotheses, but case studies are also prevalent. Asignificant number of statistical analyses are actually irrelevant to rational choice.The difference between the American and Taiwanese political studies is thusimmense. The underlying cause may be the heterogeneity of the concerns of thepolitical scientists in the two places, which forces the latter to focus on “finding”rather than “explaining” facts. Accordingly, to become an empirical theory, rationalchoice must seek cooperation from other approaches. Whether this outcome isacceptable is a normative issue, but pros and cons of this approach should both bebased on a correct understanding of the state of the discipline.