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Definition:
Although it is a commonly held belief that the principle of "majority rule"
in liberal democratic states is the best form of government, political philosopher
Kenneth Arrow has been able to demonstrate that the "collective preferences"
of a group of people cannot necessarily be determined merely from tabulating the
individual preferences of their members.
This "voting paradox" can be described thus: Imagine that we have a vote and people must choose from options A, B and C, ranking them in order of preference. From three options, equal portions of the population rank them A-B-C, B-C-A, and C-A-B.
The results appear to be easy to understand, but precisely two-thirds of the voters favor A over B, and two-thirds B over C, and two-thirds favor C over A. So, which is the "collective favorite" of this group of people? The question is impossible to answer merely from the tabulated results.
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Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
