1 Homans and Emerson on Power: Out of the Skinner Box? Karen S. Cook and Alexandra Gerbasi Introduction As late as 1986, in his biting retrospective essay entitled, “Fifty Years of Sociology,” published in the Annual Review of Sociology, George C. Homans defended behaviorism as an important, indeed, perhaps the most important, basis for theoretical insights into human social behavior. And, though he extolled other developments in sociology, namely, statistical methodology, network analysis, historical sociology, and sociobiology, Homans remained dedicated to the view that elementary human behavior was best explained by some version of utilitarianism, or rational choice theory, derived from elementary economics and behavioral psychology. 1 He had two primary reasons for this devotion to behaviorism: (1) it was in his view a coherent theory of behavior, and (2) it provided the basis for a general theoretical foundation for the social science of behavior. Recently, a new round of debates over the utility of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology for explanations of human social behavior have emerged (see review by Freese, Li and Wade 2003, Udry 1995) raising similar questions about the foundations of social behavior. While there is no reference to Homans’ work in these current debates, it is important to recognize that he was one of the early proponents of the relevance of 1