Recent Results in the Theory of Voting

Abstract

The theory of voting and public choice has been rapidly developing along several different lines. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review and synthesis of the recent results. "Recent" is taken to mean roughly since 1963. Excellent discussions of the developments prior to 1964 can be found in Arrow (1963), Rothenberg (1961), and Vickery (1960). The materials are partitioned into three major sections. The first section pertains to the axiomatic formulation of the social choice problem. The second section deals exclusively with majority rule and the third section contains an examination of what could loosely be called the theory of political processes. The final section contains a few closing remarks.