Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 00:17:52 PST
Subject: M-I: What is "Rational Choice" Marxism (was Re: M-I: Racism, 
From: farmelantj-AT-juno.com (James Farmelant)



>
: jschulman-AT-juno.com (Jason A Schulman)
on>Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 21:33:21 EST asked:

>
>Will someone please tell me what a "Rational Choice" Marxist is? 
>
>- -- Jason
 
Undoubtedly, Justin could do a far better job explaining what Rational Choice Marxism and Analytical Marxism are than I could ever hope to do but
I shall make the attempt anyway.  Starting with the latter first
Analytical Marxism can be defined as  an approach to Marxist theorizing
that in the words of G.A. Cohen is governed by two
constraints: "on the one hand, what Marx wrote, and, on the other, those
standards of
clarity and rigour which distinguish much twentieth-century analytical
philosophy."  In
other words Analytical Marxists freely draw upon the tools of logical and
linguistic analysis that analytical philosophers have developed in this
century in order to elucidate and reconstruct Marxist theory.  Indeed
Analytical Marxists go beyond this by
also employing the tools of contemporary neo-classical economics
including especially game theory for the sale of "clarifying" and
reconstructing Marxist concepts.
Gerry Cohen is usually taken to be the founder of Analytical Marxism with
his 1978 book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence.  Since then there
have emerged a number of writers that either describe themselves as Analytical Marxists or are so described as such by others.  Amongst them are
the economist John Roemer, the political scientist and philosopher Jon
Elster, the sociologist Erik Olin Wright and numerous other philosophers
and social scientists. Gerry Cohen's book Karl Marx's
Theory of History: A Defence is as already mentioned the founding text of
the movement but other important texts include Richard W. Miller's
Analyzing Marx: Morality, Power and History (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1984), Jon Elster's
Making Sense of Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), and
John Roemer's A General Theory of Exploitation and Class ( Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1982) .

Rational Choice Marxism is a variant of Analytical Marxism which is
committed to interpreting and reconstructing Marxian theory in terms of
rational choice theory and
methodological individualism.  Rational Choice Marxists believe that the
social phenomena that is the subject matter of Marxism can be best
understood using the 
kinds of rational-actor models not unlike those pioneered by
neo-classical economists and political scientists. This is an
interesting development since rational
choice theory was originally developed by conservative economists like
Gary Becker
but writers like Roemer and Elster have attempted to show that these
methods can be used to address Marxian questions.  Roemer for instance
has used rational choice theory and game theory to reconstruct the
Marxian notion of 'exploitation' so that it need not rely upon the labor
theory of value.  Roemer asks different questions than do neo-classical economists and he characterizes the context of rational choice
quite differently than they would. Therefore, whereas neo-classical
economists view the free market as generating optimal outcomes Roemer
sees  individual optimizing
strategies as systematically producing exploitation and classes.

Jon Elster likewise as a Rational Choice Marxist has defended the
interpretation of Marxism in terms of rational choice theory and
methodological individualism.  Elster has been a critic of functionalism
in social theory  including Cohen's reliance on functionalist
explanations. Whether one can meaningfully reduce social theory in
general and Marxian theory in particular to rational choice theory
remains a very controversial question among both Marxist and non-Marxist
social scientists alike.

                                                              Jim
______
>


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