A note on participatory decision making, rationality and social capital

This paper addresses a particular issue of institutional choice. It is concerned with one aspect of the argument for participatory decision-making structures: how to make sense of the claim that participation can raise productivity because it produces a change in motivation. The argument of the paper turns, first, on distinguishing between the rational choice account of behaviour and a norm-guided one and, second, on the thought that participatory structures give scope for norm-guided behaviour to flourish in ways not found in hierarchies.