Political rationality reconsidered: Notes on an integrated evaluative scheme for policy choices

Abstract

This essay deals with the concept and problem of political rationality. Following the ancient conception that the absence or presence of rationality manifests itself in choice situations, we try to explore at first the specific characteristics of political choice, then turn to a discussion of the criteria for rationality, considering process, goal contents and structure criteria, point to the restrictions for rationality analytically inherent in any choice structure, and try in the end to make clear the difference between these analytical (i.e. principally unremovable) restrictions and the (principally removable) “confining conditions” (Kirchheimer) for rational political choices provided by the circumstances of present-day politics.