Skip to main content

Voting Paradoxes

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
  • 90 Accesses

Abstract

After using an example to motivate why voting theory is so central to the social sciences, this survey describes some of the more recent (and, surprisingly, benign) interpretations of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem as well as explanations of the wide selection of voting paradoxes that drive this academic area. As described, it now is possible to explain all positional voting paradoxes while creating any number of illustrating examples.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 8,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Arrow, K. 1951. Social choice and individual values, Cowles foundation monograph No. 17. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borda, J. 1781. Mémoire sur les élections au scrutin. Paris: Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brams, S., P. Fishburn, and S. Merrill. 1988. The responsiveness of approval voting: Comments on Saari and Van Newenhizen. Public Choice 59: 112–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Condorcet, M. 1785. Essai sur l’application de l’analyse à la probabilité des décisions rendues à la pluralité des voix. Paris: Imprimerie Royale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debreu, G. 1974. Excess demand functions. Journal of Mathematical Economics 1: 15–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dodgson, C. 1876. A method for taking votes on more than two issues. In Classics of social choice, ed. I. McLean and A. Urken. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishburn, P. 1981. Inverted orders for monotone scoring rules. Discrete Applied Mathematics 3: 27–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fishburn, P., and S. Brams. 1983. Paradoxes of preferential voting. Mathematics Magazine 56: 207–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbard, A. 1973. Manipulation of voting schemes: A general result. Econometrica 41: 587–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haunsperger, D. 1992. Dictionaries of paradoxes for statistical tests on k-samples. Journal American Statistical Association 87: 149–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luce, D. 1959. Individual choice behavior. Mineloa: Dover Publications, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mantel, R. 1972. On the characterization of aggregate excess demand. Journal of Economic Theory 7: 348–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nurmi, H. 1999. Voting paradoxes and how to deal with them. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nurmi, H. 2002. Voting procedures under uncertainty. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ratliff, T. 2001. A comparison of Dodgson’s method and Kemeny’s rule. Social Choice & Welfare 18: 79–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratliff, T. 2003. Some startling paradoxes when electing committees. Social Choice & Welfare 21: 433–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D. 1989. A dictionary for voting paradoxes. Journal of Economic Theory 48: 443–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D. 1992a. Millions of election rankings from a single profile. Social Choice & Welfare 9: 277–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D. 1992b. The aggregate excess demand function and other aggregation procedures. Economic Theory 2: 359–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D. 1999. Explaining all three alternative voting outcomes. Journal of Economic Theory 8: 313–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D. 2000. Mathematical structure of voting paradoxes. Economic Theory 15: 1–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D. 2001. Decisions and elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D., and V. Merlin. 2000. A geometric examination of Kemeny’s rule. Social Choice & Welfare 17: 403–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D., and M. Tataru. 1999. The likelihood of dubious election outcomes. Economic Theory 13: 345–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saari, D., and J. Van Newenhizen. 1988. Is approval voting an ‘unmitigated evil?’. Public Choice 59: 133–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Satterthwaite, M. 1975. Strategyproofness and Arrow’s conditions. Journal of Economic Theory 10: 187–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sonnenshein, H. 1972. Market excess demand functions. Econometrica 40: 649–663.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Copyright information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Saari, D.G. (2018). Voting Paradoxes. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1920

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics