Constructing Global Public Goods

Constructing Global Public Goods provides a needed addition to a discussion on how rational choice theory can benefit from social constructivist insights. It is easily accessible and likely to benefit students of rational choice, because it does what it promises, namely "that rational choice models become much more robust representations of reality when theorists engage in thick rationality". * European Review of International Studies * This book breaks new ground in studying the social construction of the politics of global public goods. Prof. Roberts argues that in order to apply the insights of rational theories of public goods provision effectively we need first to look at what state preferences are, and how they came to be that way. Why do some states see themselves as public goods providers and others not? The answer lies in state identity as much as in rational calculation. -- Samuel Barkin, University of Massachusetts, Boston By assuming that functionally equivalent actors have the same preferences or by assuming that the formation of preferences is exogenous to the model (and therefore unimportant), rational choice approaches have seemed to me to be sterile and disconnected to the messy, blood-filled world they purport to model. Constructing Global Public Goods is a welcome exception. In this heterodox and clearly written book, James Roberts does something I did not think was possible: He makes rational choice approaches to International Relations interesting and helps us understand the context in which global public goods are or are not provided. By using rule-based constructivist methods, he unpacks actors' identities, providing insight into the utility that actors assign to possible choices. In essence, there's a politics to the formation of utility and identity, and constructivism's focus on the co-constitution of actors and structures provides the analytical lens. Roberts' utility-based model of public goods provides an analytical tool for making sense of actors' changing preferences for supplying public goods as a consequence of changes in identity. Roberts put the politics back into rational choice models of providing global public goods. -- Renee Marlin-Bennett, Johns Hopkins University