Explaining Voting Paradoxes; Including Arrow’s and Sen’s Theorems

Abstract

What makes the field of social choice so fascinating is that it is full of complexities, assertions about the impossibility of doing what seems quite natural to do, and many mysteries. Adding to its allure is the importance of the topic; these mysteries can indicate and predict sources of societal complications. While some of these difficulties will be described in this tutorial, be assured that this will not be still another hand-wringing, ‘what can go wrong’ session. Instead, a main theme will be to provide hope coupled with positive assertions and new research directions. To accomplish this objective, it is necessary to explain why many of these difficulties arise, and that will be done with an emphasis on ‘intuition’. In fact, expect a ‘hands-on’, interactive session.