O artigo desenvolve o conceito de \'Empreendedor Político\' de Russell Hardin (1982), a partir da abordagem da Escolha Racional e da Teoria do Bem Público. Originalmente aplicado à Ciência Política, o objetivo é transformá-lo em um instrumento de análise para a avaliação do desempenho da ação de Estados nas Relações Internacionais. Para isso, o artigo lança mão da taxonomia de Soares de Lima (1990) para designar o comportamento \'empreendedor\' de países emergentes, e assim qualificar o desempenho do Brasil como empreendedor político em dois estudos de caso que serão objeto de consideração no artigo empírico. / The article develops the concept of \'Political Entrepreneur\' of Russell Hardin (1982), from the approach of the Rational Choice and of the Theory of the Public Good. Originally applied to the Political Science, the objective is transforming the concept in an instrument of analysis for the evaluation about the performance of States in the International Relations. For that, the article utilizes of the taxonomy of Soares de Lima (1990) for assessing the behavior of developing countries, and qualifies the performance of Brazil as \'entrepreneur\' in two case studies that will be object of consideration in the coming empirical article.

This thesis examines the effect political trust has on voter turnout among foreign born citizens in Sweden. Economic theory is used as theoretical framework for this study and describes two types of rationale; rationale of voting and rationale of migration, which must be taking into the account when trying to understand the effect of political trust among foreign born citizens. It is from this argued that the incentives to vote for foreign born citizens are very low but that political trust is high due to an improved standard of living. Based on previous research on the positive relationship of political trust and voter turnout as well as the rationale behind it, hypotheses are constructed to be tested in statistical analysis. The hypotheses are that probability to vote increases with political trust, foreign born citizens have higher political trust than native citizens, but that the effect of political trust on voter turnout among foreign born citizens is weaker than for native citizens. The empirical data used for the study are gathered from the 2016 round of the European Social Survey. The statistical analysis supports the hypotheses that probability to vote increases with political trust and that foreign born citizens do have a higher political trust than native citizens. This support in combination with the knowledge that foreign born citizens vote to a lesser degree creates a paradox that would be solved by the last hypothesis, that the effect is weaker among foreign born citizens. However, this hypothesis cannot be completely supported, but there are reasons to believe that with better data the outcome would be positive. The study still reaches the conclusion that political trust among foreign born people is an important issue to take into account for policy makers and future research.

Abstract Employee violations of IS security policies is recognized as a key concern for organizations. Although interest in IS security has risen in recent years, little empirical research has examined this problem. To address this research gap, this dissertation identifies deliberate IS security policy violations as a phenomenon unique from other forms of computer abuse. To better understand this phenomenon, three guidelines for researching deliberate IS security violations are proposed. An analysis of previous behavioral IS security literature shows that no existing study meets more than one of these guidelines. Using these guidelines as a basis, this dissertation examines IS security policy violations using three theoretical models drawn from the following perspectives: neutralization theory, rational choice theory, and protection motivation theory. Three field studies involving surveys of 1,423 professional respondents belonging to 7 organizations across 47 countries were performed for empirical testing of the models. The findings of these studies identify several factors that strongly predict intentions to violate IS security policies. These results significantly increase our understanding of why employees choose to violate IS security policies and provide empirically-grounded implications for how practitioners can improve employee IS security policy compliance.

Many critics of rational choice theory aim at unrealistic psychological assumption of this theory. To what extent is this kind of critic relevant? If we analyze the formalized scheme of choice than we will find difficult to interpret this scheme as psychological theory that develops intentional explanations. We should rather understand this theory as a theory developing causal explanations that are generated by the structure of surrounding. Intencionality in this theory is only a auxiliary tool and the explanation is made in terms of structure, not in terms of mental states. From this perspective most of the critic aim at wrong target.

Det primära syftet med denna uppsats var att studera den subjektiva uppfattningen av prestationsbaserade löner i korrelation till stress, oro, missnöje, motivation och utvecklingsmöjligheter. Till detta ingick det även att ta reda på varför informanterna valde att ta anställning på en arbetsplats med prestationsbaserad lön och slutligen gjordes en jämförelse mellan de två informantgrupperna, medarbetare och mellanchefer. Då syftet var att studera den subjektiva uppfattningen hos informanterna användes en kvalitativ ansatts där empirin samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra medarbetare från ett företag och fyra mellanchefer från fyra olika företag.  Det empiriska materialet har analyserats utifrån sociologiska teorier och annan arbetsmarknadsforskning. De sociologiska teorier som användes var, Rational choice, 2-faktorteorin och Expectancy teorin. Arbetsmarknadsforskning som användes för analysen var krav-kontroll-stöd-modellen och ledarskapsforskning. Resultatet tyder på att incitamentet initialt för att ta anställning på ett företag med prestationsbaserad lön är möjligheten till att få en större inkomst än det vore möjligt på annan plats. Vidare tyder resultatet på att informanterna upplevde att den prestationsbaserade lönen bidrog till deras motivation och utvecklingsmöjligheter. Resultatet pekade även på att stress som en följd av den prestationsbaserade lönen är närvarande hos samtliga informanter men den uppfattades som större hos mellancheferna då de upplevde att de hade större ansvar än medarbetarna. Mellanchefernas upplevelse av stress förstärktes på grund av den brist på kontroll de hade över personalomsättningen och företagets policy vad det gäller deras arbete. Slutligen indikerade resultat av studien att mellancheferna uppfattade den status som den prestationsbaserade lönen gav dem som ett starkt incitament.

The different factors behind why people vote as they do have been researched for a very long time. Ever since Anthony Downs revolutionary book An economic theory for democracy from 1957. Researchers have found different methods and models to explain voting behavior. One of these models is the rational choice model for voting which has been preferred amongst scientist since it gives a solid foundation to research people as equals. This Essay aimed to use rational choice as the model on peoples economic voting through the lens of their socio economic status. The method used in the essay was a data analysis of the Survey from 2010 by Valforskningsprogrammet in Gothenburg where 3963 people participated. With the help of statistics program variables within this essay was chosen and applied in a cross tabulation, regression-analysis and korrelation analysis. The results found that very little of people voting behavior correlated with their socio economic background and the majority did not vote rational according to the theory. Even though there was a small correlation confirmed it was not strong enough to warrant rational choice as the definitive voting behavioral model.

This study seeks to explain political leaders' motives to action, by studying how Jair Bolsonaro and Emmanuel Macron have acted in the matter of the fires in the Amazon rainforest. It is assumed that while political leaders may try to act rationally, they are influenced by psychological factors in terms of educational background and style. The theories of rational choice and political psychology are therefore used and integrated to explain their motives. The method used in the paper is a comparative qualitative content analysis, in which various statements and speeches made by the Presidents are read and analyzed. The results of the thesis show that for Bolsonaro, the Amazon fires is an internal matter and should be handled by the Amazonian countries. He seems to be seeking to achieve national goals, while being influenced by his conservative educational background. Macron indicates that the Amazon is an issue for the international community and that it is of major importance for the whole world. He appears to be seeking international goals, while being influenced by his liberal educational background. The assumption that political leaders' style influence their motives to action is not supported.

American policy makers primarily embrace a deterrent-based policing agenda to curb illicit drug trafficking and use that relies on the principles of the economic price elasticity of demand (Boynum & Reuter, 2005). This counter-drug platform includes three fundamental programs: arresting offenders, seizing illicit drugs, and eradicating horticultural sources of illicit drugs (U.S. DEA, 2015). One of the main goals of these programs is to deter illegal trafficking and use by increasing the price of illicit substances so they are no longer attractive to consumers. The United States has weathered various drug use epidemics during its history, and currently it is facing a heroin and opioid epidemic (Dean, 2017). The present multi-dimensional study is guided by three broad goals: to assess the dynamics of illicit drug pricing and the economic price elasticity of demand perspective; to evaluate whether drug trafficking organizations respond to theoretically deterrence based counter-drug law enforcement efforts; and to assess why law enforcement activities are (or are not) effective in controlling illegal drug markets. To accomplish these three broad goals, four separate yet linked focal points comprised of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods evaluations of official data are examined. The findings in the study call into question the current American counter-drug law enforcement agenda being used to address the ongoing heroin epidemic. Furthermore, the results shine light on various shortcomings in overall U.S. counter-drug policy. Finally, the study calls for a new approach to address illicit drug trafficking and use in the U.S.

The purpose of this study is to examine the Colombian conflict, more specifically how it became peace in Colombia after five decades. The study will be limited by year due to the scope of the study. The analysis will specifically focus on the years 2002 to 2016. This essay is a case study, with the Colombia conflict as the focus. Furthermore, the theoretical framework for the thesis will mainly be the rational choice model.  The analysis is based on various analysis tools and an analysis model. This will be consistent in the study that constitutes the main investigation in the thesis. The theoretical perspectives will be examined using the article "Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis" written by Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. Furthermore, other relevant articles will be processed to get a better analysis of the Colombia conflict. The articles will, among other things, be of great help in answering the study's questions - In what way can the theory of rational choice explain the conflict resolution in Colombia between the years 2002–2016? And Which motives have primarily governed the state, the FARC guerrillas, and the AUC - paramilitary group.

Increased possibilitiesof choosing one’s school of preference hasbeen raised as a key factor in many countries to promote equal opportunitiesand higher quality of education. This has been endorsed by policymakers whoassume that students make well-informed rational choices and that students only stress academic quality whendeciding which school to attend. If this is true, it will benefit schools ofhigh academic quality, rendering improved school quality overall. To date,little research has examined the validity of these assumptions despite theprofound effects they have had for changing the school systems in manycountries. This study employs an experimental approach to investigate therelative importance of attributes in school choice. Specifically the study isbased on experimental data from 587 prospective high school students inHalmstad, Sweden. The purpose is to contrast the principal school qualityattributes behind the policy change (academic reputation and programfeasibility), with the presence of friends and geographical attributes such asdistance, location and accessibility, while controlling for individualcharacteristics. The results are disturbing as they reveal flaws in theassumptions that motivated the school choice policy reform. The study presents evidence of differencesin preferences and that grades are the most important background characteristic for this difference. The study also shows that all studentsare not rational to the same extent as theory predicts. Hence theSwedish school reforms have been based on a slightly biased theory. Finally, the study indicates that differentgeographic contexts (e.g. where the studentslive) affect students' preferences.