Self-Governance in Micro Level Theory

Micro level theories take the individual as their starting point, and analyse phenomena as the outcome of individuals’ actions. The difference between micro level theories is the view of the individual and her relations to her environment. The main theoretical micro level framework is rational choice theory (RCT). It is a big tree with many branches, differing both in the exact assumptions made, methodology and substantive research questions. Two of these branches are directly relevant to self-governance: public choice theory (PCT), and management of common pool resources (CPRs). PCT, at least the part we’re concerned with here, deals with how the political system can aggregate individuals’ preferences into a social preference that corresponds to these preferences in a reasonable way, and implement it. A good democratic system delivers policies that correspond to what the people want.