(DP 1982-04) Social Values and Individual Choices

Abstract

This paper sketches a theory of social choice based on a lexicographic ordering of multiple social values that can be pursued to greater or lesser degrees. Distinctions are made among the following concepts: (a) the vector-valued social decision, which results from individual choices regarding its components; (b) the social choice, which calls the compliance by the members of society with the social decision; and (c) social welfare judgements, which apply to situations where individual choices violate the social choice. A resolution of the Sen-Gibbard libertarian paradox follows from the theory.