Justification of social choice methods

Abstract

Social choice theory is essentially about the constraints upon effective mechanisms for implementing desirable states of a society or a group, given the preferences and utilities of its members. Social choice theory is also, and much more generally, a conceptual examination of normative theories of society – theories that characterize what it is for state of affairs to be better from the social point of view. Social choice methods have different aims, for example democratic decision-making, epistemic decision-making, respecting individual rights of persons and groups, just distribution of goods. They are justified by the sets of postulates, which represent different basic social values.