Incorporating Reality into Social Choice

When voting on a proposal one in fact chooses between two alternatives: (i) A new hypothetical social state depicted by the proposal and (ii) the status quo (henceforth: Reality); a Yes vote favors a transition to the proposed hypothetical state, while a No vote favors Reality. Social Choice theory generalizes voting on one proposal to ranking multiple proposals; that Reality was forsaken during this generalization is, in our view, inexplicable. Here we propose to rectify this neglect and incorporate Reality into Social Choice, distinguishing between Reality and hypothesis. We do so by recognizing Reality as an ever-present, always-relevant, evolving social state that is distinguished from hypothetical social states, and explore the ramifications of this recognition. Incorporating Reality into Social Choice offers: (i) A natural way to resolve the Condorcet paradox and Condorcet cycles; (ii) a resolution to the vexing ambiguity regarding what do approval voters, in fact, approve? (iii) a simple and practical show-of-hands agenda that implements an approval vote in one round and Condorcet-consistent voting in multiple rounds; and (iv) reasoned nullification of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives and hence abdication of Arrow’s Theorem. Arrow’s theorem was taken to show that democracy, conceived as government by the will of the people, is an incoherent illusion. Incorporating Reality into Social Choice may clear this intellectual blemish on democracy; pave the way for the broad application of the Condorcet criterion; and, more generally, help restore trust in democracy by showing that it offers a coherent and hopeful vision.