Neue Politische Ökonomie in der Geschichte: Vom Dialog der Taubstummen zum interdisziplinären Gespräch ; New political economy in history: from the dialogue of the deaf to interdisciplinary cooperation

The cultural turn has reached Political History; German scholars focusing on political history are trying to reconceptualise political history as 'history of the political'. They are receptive to theories, methods and concepts from other disciplines. Still, there is a remarkable desideratum in this search for theories that may be related to historical research: Theories and methods discussed in the empirical-analytical branch of political science that is systematically concerned with political phenomena are seldom discussed and applied to historical phenomena. There are however several exceptions to this rule. Some social scientists have applied rational choice theory and considerations from new political economy to history in recent years. This issue of Historical Social Research is intended to contribute to this bridging of Political Science and History. It presents case studies applying rational choice considerations (mainly new political economy and public choice theories) to history as well asmethodologically interested articles discussing chances and limits of this interdisciplinary endeavour.