The Influence of Economics on Political Science: By What Pathway?

Abstract

The influence of economics, the most imperialistic of the social science disciplines, is widely thought to have been felt more decisively in political science than in any other discipline. After briefly reviewing some evidence that this alleged influence is not transmitted through the use of specific economics concepts, this paper explores the possibility that the influence instead stems from the importation into political science of formal rational choice modeling techniques from economics. This is done using a case study of an important political science literature on voting behavior and the voter turnout puzzle. The analysis produces what seems compelling evidence for the importation of economics-oriented analytical methods into the political science literature on voting.

Keywords: Downs voting model, voter turnout puzzle, effect of economics on political science, economic imperialism, methodological individualism

JEL Classification: B21, B41