1094-2939/99/0616-0269$08.00 269 Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 1999. 2:269–95 Copyright © 1999 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved THE ROCHESTER SCHOOL: The Origins of Positive Political Theory S. M. Amadae Office for the History of Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720; e-mail: amadae@socrates.berkeley.edu Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; e-mail: bdm@hoover.stanford.edu KEY WORDS: decision making, rational choice, game theory, spatial models ABSTRACT The Rochester school of political science, led by William H Riker, pioneered the new method of positive political theory. Positive political theory, or ra- tional choice theory, represents the attempt to build formal models of collec- tive decision-making processes, often relying on the assumption of self- interested rational action. This method has been used to study such political processes as elections, legislative behavior, public goods, and treaty forma- tion and diplomatic strategy in international relations. In this article, we pro- vide a retrospective account of the Rochester school, which discusses Rik- er’s theoretical synthesis and his institution building in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. We discuss some of the most important Rochester school contribu- tions related to spatial models of voting, agenda setting, structure-induced equilibria, heresthetics, game theory, and political theory. We also briefly situate positive political theory within the larger context of political science and economics. INTRODUCTION Over the past three decades, positive political theory has become a central and widely accepted method for studying politics. At the beginning of the 1960s, however, the Rochester school, which launched the positive political theory revolution in political science, was no more than the idea of a lone intellec- Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 1999.2:269-295. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by University of Georgia on 09/05/07. For personal use only.