Ilchman and Uphoff believe that political science has failed in the past to meet its own standards of rigor and cogency and does not meet standards of usefulness and relevance set by others. The Political Economy of Change attempts to remedy these shortcomings by expanding the limits of social science analysis to deal with problems of allocation and productivity in all spheres of public choice, not just the economic sphere.

Ilchman and Uphoff believe that political science has failed in the past to meet its own standards of rigor and cogency and does not meet standards of usefulness and relevance set by others