Individual rights and social evaluation: A conceptual framework

Abstract

We propose a framework for the analysis of social choice and welfare which uses the informational basis of individual preference orderings over the pairs of conventionally defined social alternatives and social decision-making mechanisms. In particular, we consider the case where the decision-making mechanism is a rights-structure modelled as game forms. We use this framework to clarify the role for individual preferences in conferring rights, in the realization of the conferred rights, and in describing the formal contents of rights. We also explore its implications for the controversial issue of the consistency of social choice and Sen's paradox of Paretian libertarianism.