Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Collective choice: Collective choice in economics refers to decision-making processes where groups, rather than individuals, make choices—typically through voting or political mechanisms. It studies how preferences are aggregated to determine public policies, laws, or resource allocations, and is central to public choice theory. See also Group behavior, Voting, Public Choice, Rational Choice, Individualism, Communitarianism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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James M. Buchanan on Collective Choice - Dictionary of Arguments
Boudreaux I 34 Collective Choice/Buchanan/Boudreaux/Holcombe: Because only individuals make choices, only individuals experience costs, and then only those individuals who make the choices that yield the costs. But as mentioned earlier, even the individual who incurs a cost by choosing option A rather than option B can never know for certain if it was worthwhile to incur the cost. This person will experience whatever benefits flow to him or her as a result of having chosen option A. Yet because option B is forever lost, this person cannot objectively know what would have been the benefits that he or she would have enjoyed had he or she instead chosen option B. Group behavior: Groups can be said to make collective choices - for example, by voting. But the group as such, the group as an entity, makes no choices, for the group as such - we say yet again - has no brain. The collective choice is arrived at by each individual in the group voting and then having these votes processed into an outcome through some voting rule. The collective decision is determined by aggregating individual choices. Groups do not take actions. Only individuals do - a reality that doesn’t change when individuals join together into a group. >Decision-maling Process/Buchanan, >Cost/Buchanan._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
EconBuchan I James M. Buchanan Politics as Public Choice Carmel, IN 2000 Boudreaux I Donald J. Boudreaux Randall G. Holcombe The Essential James Buchanan Vancouver: The Fraser Institute 2021 Boudreaux II Donald J. Boudreaux The Essential Hayek Vancouver: Fraser Institute 2014 |
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