Collective Decisions and Voting: The Potential for Public Choice

Nicolaus Tideman

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 - Political Science - 335 pages

Voting is often the most public and visible example of mass collective decision-making. But how do we define a collective decision? And how do we classify and evaluate the modes by which collective decisions are made? This book examines these crucial ques

Contents

• Defining a Collective Decision: 3
• Vote Processing Rules for Selecting More than One Candidate When Votes: 15
• A Taxonomy of Collective Decision Procedures: 21
• Economic Criteria for Evaluating Collective Decisions: 23
• General Criteria for Evaluating Collective Decision Procedures: 34
• Relative Advantages of Modes of Making Collective Decisions: 43
• What is a Good Collective Decision?: 57
• Voting: 75
• An Overview of Voting: 77
• Majority Rule and its Weighted Analog: 83
• Voting Cycles: 97
• The Arrow Theorem: 123
• Strategic Voting and the GibbardSatterthwaite Theorem: 143
• Criteria for Evaluating RankingBased VoteProcessing Rules: 149
• Alternatives to Plurality: 165
• Vote Processing Rules for Selecting One Option from a Continuum of: 242
• or More Dimensions When Votes Have Predetermined Weights: 245
• Vote Processing Rules With Endogenous Weights for SelfInterested: 289
• Lessons from the Excursion: 321

About the author

Nicolaus Tideman is Professor of Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. He has been there since 1973, as a post-doctoral fellow, Associate Professor, and Professor since 1985. He has published many professional articles, primarily in the areas of urban economics, public finance, efficient public decision-making, and economic justice.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Collective Decisions and Voting: The Potential for Public Choice
• Author: Nicolaus Tideman
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006
• ISBN: 075464717X, 9780754647171
• Length: 335 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Political Process / Campaigns & Elections