What could be more natural than reaching agreement by following the preference of the majority? Mihir Bhattacharya and Nicolas Gravel study the issue through a mathematical lens. They show that, in addition to its philosophical legitimacy, the majority is a collective preference representative of the preferences of the members of a society. Like the average, the median, or other statistical measures, the preference of the majority bears the closest resemblance to the individual preferences from which it emanates.
March 30th 2022
