Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T20:11:33.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Possibility of Self-Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2000

Colin Bird
Colin Bird*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many have suggested that the findings of social choice theory demonstrate that there can be no “will of the people.” This has subversive implications for our intuitive concept of self-government. I explore the relation between the notion of a “social will,” that of self-government, and the impossibility theorems of social choice theory. I conclude that although the concept of the social will is essential to that of self-government, the findings of social choice theory do not cast doubt upon the possibility of either. Unlike many attempts to respond to the threat posed by social choice theory, my argument does not require any appeal to the problematic notion of the common good.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 94 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 563 - 577
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2000

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

REFERENCES

Aristotle, 1981. The Politics. London: Penguin Google Scholar
Arrow, Kenneth J. [1951] 1963. Social Choice and Individual Values. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Barber, Benjamin R. 1993. “Reductionist Political Science and Democracy.” In Reconsidering the Democratic Public, ed. Marcus, George E. and Hanson, Russell L.. University Park: Penn State University Press. Pp. 65–72.Google Scholar
Barry, Brian. 1990. Political Argument. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 1986. “An Epistemic Conception of Democracy.” Ethics 97 (October): 26–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, Jules, and Ferejohn, John. 1986. “Democracy and Social Choice.” Ethics 97 (October): 6–25.10.1086/292814CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duverger, Maurice. 1954. Political Parties, trans. North, Barbara and North, Robert. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1986. “The Market and the Forum: Three Varieties of Political Theory.” In Foundations of Social Choice Theory, ed. Elster, Jon and Hylland, Aanund. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 103–33.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. 1988. The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511818172CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodin, Robert. 1986. “Laundering Preferences.” In Foundations of Social Choice Theory, ed. Elster, Jon and Hylland, Aanund. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 75–101.Google Scholar
Grofman, Bernard, and Feld, Scott. 1988. “Rousseau's General Will: A Condorcetian Perspective.” American Political Science Review 82 (June): 567–76.10.2307/1957401CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurley, Susan. 1989. Natural Reasons: Personality and Polity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
May, Kenneth. 1954. “Intransitivity, Utility, and the Aggregation of Preference Patterns.” Econometrica 22 (January): 1–13.10.2307/1909827CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayo, Bernard. 1956. “Is There a Case for the General Will.” In Philosophy, Politics and Society, ed. Laslett, Peter. New York: MacMillan. Pp. 92–8.Google Scholar
McClean, Iain. 1991. “Rational Choice and Politics.” Political Studies 39 (September): 496–512.10.1111/j.1467-9248.1991.tb01625.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKelvey, Richard. 1979. “General Conditions for Global Intransitivities in Formal Voting Models.” Econometrica 47 (September): 1085–111.10.2307/1911951CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michels, Robert. 1916. Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. London: Jarrold.Google Scholar
Plott, Charles. 1976. “Axiomatic Social Choice Theory: An Overview and Interpretation.” American Journal of Political Science 20 (August): 511–96.10.2307/2110686CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radcliff, Benjamin. 1992. “The General Will and Social Choice Theory.” The Review of Politics 54 (Winter): 34–49.10.1017/S0034670500017174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1986. The Morality of Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Riker, William. 1982. Liberalism against Populism: A Confrontation between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Roemer, John. 1996. Theories of Distributive Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schelling, Thomas. 1984. Choice and Consequence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schofield, Norman. 1985. Social Choice and Democracy. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.10.1007/978-3-642-70596-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph. 1942. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1970. Collective Choice and Social Welfare. San Francisco: Holden-Day.Google Scholar
Steedman, Ian, and Krause, Ulrich. 1986. “Goethe's Faust, Arrow's Possibility Theorem and the Individual Decision-Taker.” In The Multiple Self, ed. Elster, Jon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 197–233.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.