Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/104147 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
Munich Discussion Paper No. 2004-21
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Volkswirtschaftliche Fakultät, München
Abstract: 
The paper challenges the 'orthodox doctrine' of collective choice theory according to which Arrow’s 'general possibility theorem' precludes rational decision procedures generally and implies that in particular all voting procedures must be flawed. I point out that all voting procedures are cardinal and that Arrow’s result, based on preference orderings cannot apply to them. All voting procedures that have been proposed, with the exception of approval voting, involve restrictions on voters expressions of their preferences. These restrictions, not any general impossibility, are the cause of various well known pathologies. In the class of unrestricted voting procedures I favor 'evaluative voting' under which a voter can vote for or against any alternative, or abstain. I give a historical/conceptual analysis of the origins of theorists’ aversion to cardinal analysis in collective choice and voting theories.
Subjects: 
Arrow's paradox
approval voting
cardinal collective choice
instant runoff voting
voting paradoxes
JEL: 
D71
D72
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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