| Rational Choice | Sociological institutionalism | Communicative Action | |
| Goal of the political action | Logic of consequences: actors act purposely to reach their objectives, which are fixed a priori as a result of the anticipation of the consequences of a political action. | Logic of appropriateness: actors act according to their role within a community as a result of habit or a particular identity. | Logic of justification: actors seek to reach an agreement through the assessment of arguments deemed legitimate by all parties involved. |
| Rationality | Instrumental: actors are considered rational when they pursue their material and ideal welfare with their actions. | Contextual: actors are considered rational when their actions derive from the conception of self in a social role. | Communicative: actors are considered rational when they are able to explain and justify their actions. |
| Mode of interaction | Bargaining: actors seek their respective purposes and engage into interaction in order to induce the others to accept their claims. Threats to veto, linkages between issues and side-payments are usual instruments of negotiation. | Role conformity: actors consider what they are expected to do according to their social roles, the norms to be applied and the values of the community to which they belong. | Arguing: actors seek consensus and engage into communication for the purpose of convincing the others, i.e. to make them to change beliefs about factual or normative statements. |
| Type of outcome | Compromise: although parties might not get exactly what they want, each regards the result as better than no outcome at all. How much the various actors have to deviate from their opening position depends on the strength of their bargaining power, i.e. the resources at their disposal, and their ability to conduct the bargaining process. | Consent: issuing from a successful search for collective self-understanding, it expresses self-reflection and resolve on a form of life. | Working agreement: the parties clarify
arguments and challenge the reasons given in order to reach higher degrees of
understanding and a provisional agreement to make further cooperation possible.
The better argument is the one that generates more support. Rational consensus: it expresses the right thing to do according to universally-valid standards. Actors appeal to the force of a norm or a principle on justifying a political action and agreement is reached round the better argument, that which convinces all the parties. |
| Legitimacy of the collective decision | It relies on its efficiency. A collective decision should promote the interests and preferences of the members and solve their problems in a more efficient way. | It is a matter of identity. Collective decisions develop and protect the sense of we-ness, accordingly defining common goals and visions and establishing bonds of solidarity. | Collective decisions rely on a universal conception of justice, based on the respect and entrenchment of fundamental rights and a fair system of cooperation and deliberation. |
| Justification of the decision | On its utility: a policy decision is justified on its efficiency in reaching a goal (pragmatic arguments). | On values: a policy decision is justified with ethical arguments stemming from a given cultural context and the shared collective identity. | On rights: a policy decision is justified with moral arguments stemming from universally-valid standards and democratic procedures for deliberation and decision-making. |
Elaborated from concepts developed in Elster, 1992; Elster, 2000; Eriksen, 1999; Eriksen, 2003; Eriksen&Fossum, 2003; Fossum, 2000; Habermas, 1996; March & Olsen, 1998; Moravcsik, 1998 and Sjursen 2002.