Egalitarianism and utilitarianism in committees of representatives

We consider a committee of representatives that makes dichotomous choices (acceptance/rejection) by vote. Given the size of each group represented, what is the most adequate voting rule for the committee? We provide answers based on each of the two principles commonly used to make normative assessments in di¤erent contexts: egalitarianism and utilitarianism. To that end, we introduce utilities into the model and adopt a normative approach. Keys words: Collective decision-making, voting, utilitarianism, egalitarianism. JEL codes: D63, D70, D71. This research is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología under project SEJ2006-05455, co-funded by ERDF, and has also bene…tted from Acción Integrada HF-20060021/EGIDE-Picasso. The second author also bene…ts from the Basque Government’s funding to Grupo Consolidado GIC07/146-IT-377-07. We thank very much the editor and two anonymous referees for their comments and careful reading. yDepartamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I, Universidad del País Vasco, Avenida Lehendakari Aguirre, 83, E-48015 Bilbao, Spain; [email protected]. zIKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation of Science, 48011, Bilbao, Spain. xDepartamento de Economía Aplicada IV, Universidad del País Vasco, Avenida Lehendakari Aguirre, 83, E-48015 Bilbao, Spain; [email protected].