Rational choice is intimately associated with positivism and naturalism, its appeal to
scholars of public administration lying in its ability to offer a predictive science of politics that
is parsimonious in its analytical assumptions, rigorous in its deductive reasoning and
overarching in its apparent applicability. In this paper I re‐examine the ontology and
epistemology which underpins this distinctive approach to public administration, challenging
the necessity of the generally unquestioned association between rational choice and both …