Unanimity, Consensus and Majority Rule

Abstract

Democratic political action is collective action. This means that it is both about determining the collective conditions of a society and about making choices binding on all in connection with those conditions. However, under the circumstances of politics I identified in chapter 1 (partial cooperation and conflict in situations of confined generosity and bounded rationality), these choices will exhibit difference and diversity. Even with goodwill and social awareness, citizens are likely to disagree in their political opinions and judgements. Differences of interest as well as of perception and values will lead the citizens to divergent views about how to direct and use the organized political power of the community, in order to promote and protect common interests. If political representatives reflect this diversity, then there will be as much disagreement in the legislature as there is in the population. At both the level of citizens and of their representatives we have the problem of how disparate views are to be aggregated into the single choice that governments must make.