Social Choice and Democracy

Catalog description

The central theme of this course is to examine the liberal conception of democracy as the aggregation of individual preferences. Students will explore and study questions such as: How can a collective (e.g., the electorate, legislature, collegial court, expert panel, or committee) arrive at coherent collective choices or judgments on some issues, on the basis of its members' individual preferences? Who decide whose preferences should be counted? Do voters have the freedom to choose? What methods are used to aggregate preferences? What are the theoretical properties of these methods? How easily can outcomes be manipulated or distorted? Are there widespread election frauds? Answers to these questions are utmost important for any democratic decision-making body. Social choice theory will be used as our theoretical framework for the analysis of combining individual opinions, preferences, interests, or welfares to reach a collective decision. 001228