Disposing dictators, demystifying voting paradoxes : social choice analysis / Donald G. Saari.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Subtle complexity of social choice;
2. Dethroning dictators;
3. Voting dictionaries;
4. Explaining all voting paradoxes;
5. Deliver us from plurality vote;
6. Appendix.

We decide by elections, but do we elect who the voters really want? The answer, as we have learned over the last two centuries, is 'not necessarily'. What a negative, frightening assertion about a principal tool of democracy! This negativism has been supported by two hundred years of published results showing how bad the situation can be. This expository, largely non-technical book is the first to find positive results showing that the situation is not anywhere as dire and negative as we have been led to believe. Instead there are surprisingly simple explanations for the negative assertions, and positive conclusions can be obtained.