Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T11:02:17.452Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reasonable elections don’t exist!

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

John Baylis
John Baylis*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research, Trent Polytechnic, Clifton, Nottingham NG11 8NS.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1972 Kenneth Arrow was awarded the Nobel prize for economics. Much of his work was in the theory and philosophy of decision making, in particular the theory of voting, and in this field “Arrow’s theorem” is a truly remarkable result. It is a genuine application to the social sciences of some elementary mathematics and as such I feel that it is a pity that it is not in the repertoire of more teachers. Hence this article.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 69 , Issue 448 , June 1985 , pp. 95 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Arrow, K.J., Social choice and individual values. Wiley (1951, 2nd edition 1963).Google Scholar
2. Kim, K. H. and Roush, F. W., Applied abstract algebra. Ellis Horwood (1983).Google Scholar
3. Black, D., The Theory of committees and elections. Cambridge University Press (1958).Google Scholar
4. Farquharson, R., Theory of voting. Blackwell (1969).Google Scholar
5. Riker, W. H. and Ordeshook, P. C., An introduction to positive political theory. Prentice-Hall (1973).Google Scholar
6. Uzawa, H.. Preference and rational choice in the theory of consumption, Mathematical Methods in the social sciences, 1959—Proceedings of the First Stanford Symposium. Stanford University Press (1960).Google Scholar
7. Roberts, F. S.. Graph theory and the social sciences, Applications of graph theory (Edited by R. J. Wilson and L. W. Beineke). Academic Press (1979).Google Scholar
8. Roberts, F. S.. Indifference graphs, Proof techniques in graph theory—Proceedings of the second Ann Arbor Graph Theory Conference. Academic Press (1969).Google Scholar
9. Kemeny, J. G. and Snell, J. L., Mathematical models in the social sciences. Blaisdell (1962).Google Scholar
10. Malkevitch, J. and Meyer, W., Graphs, models and finite mathematics. Prentice-Hall (1974).Google Scholar