The axiomatic characterizations of majority voting and scoring rules

Abstract

The Arrovian framework of social choice theory is flexible enoughto allow for a precise axiomatic study of the voting rules that areused in political elections, sport competitions or expert committees,etc. such as the majority rule or the scoring rules. The objectiveof this paper is to give an account of the results that have beenobtained in this direction since 1951. We first present some basicconditions for a collective decision rule to be democratic. Next,we expound in detail two fundamental results: the characterizationof the majority rule by May, and the axiomatization of the familyof scoring rules by Young. Afterwards, using these results, somespecific scoring rules, such as the plurality vote or the Borda count,have also been characterized. Some remarks on other directions ofresearch and open issues conclude the paper.