Rational choice institutionalism

Have you ever tried to decide what snack to have after school? Maybe you want something sweet, like candy, but your mom says you need to eat something healthy, like a fruit. You have to make a choice between what you want and what your mom thinks is best for you.

Rational choice institutionalism is kind of like making choices between what you want and what other people think is best for you, but it's about big groups of people in society, like governments or businesses.

Rational choice institutionalism says that these big groups of people are made up of individuals who each want different things. For example, someone working for a business might want to make a lot of money, while someone working for a government might want to help people.

Rational choice institutionalism also says that these groups have rules and structures that tell people what they can and can't do. These rules and structures are called institutions. For example, a business might have rules about how much money employees can spend on things like travel expenses, or a government might have laws about what people can say in public.

So, when people in these big groups, like businesses or governments, make choices, they have to consider both what they want and what the institutions they work for allow them to do. Just like you had to choose between candy and fruit for your snack, people in big groups have to make choices based on what they want and what the rules and structures of their institutions allow them to do.

Rational choice institutionalism helps us understand how and why big groups of people make the decisions they do, based on their wants and the rules and structures they're working with.