超越社会选择研究的经济人假设——展开社会选择研究的社会学视野

Beyond the economic man assumption of the social choice study——Expand the sociological perspective

社会选择研究是关于群体、组织和社会的选择行为研究。社会选择作为一种理论兴起是在阿罗阐述了不可能定理以后。虽然社会选择理论取得了诸多研究成果,但它关于经济理性人的假设过于狭隘。公共选择理论对经济学的社会选择研究提出了切中要害的批判,把研究视角引向制度分析,这给我们的研究提供了有益的启示。但公共选择理论仍坚持经济理性人假设,同样无法超越经济学社会选择研究的局限。本文认为,从社会学的角度开展社会选择研究,要明确社会选择是社会现象,是人们交往互动的结果。要超越不可能性,就必须重视文化传统、价值信念、模仿从众等社会因素。

Social choice is well known to us. But as a theory, it emerged after the Arrow impossibility theorem. From the economic -rational assumption, Arrow found it is impossible to build social preferences from individual preferences. The reason for the impossibility is the narrow - minded assumptions of economics. But Arrow didnt see that. The theory of public choice is useful since it inspired us by attaching importance to institution. But it still insists on the economic -rational hypothesis, only pay attention to the formal, rational - designed institution, neglecting the role of informal system such as customs or habits. And from the sociologi- cal perspective, it must be clear that social choice is the result of interaction among persons. Besides benefits, social relations are important to the behaviors. In order to surpass the impossibility of Arrow, we should focus on the social factors such as cultural traditions, imitation, values and beliefs. By this means, we can expand the domain of social choice theory study. As a result, the bias of social choice study can be corrected, and we can give a positive response to the＂economics imperialism＂.