Towards a general and unified characterization of individual and collective choice functions under fuzzy and nonfuzzy preferences and majority via the ordered weighted average operators

A fuzzy preference relation is a powerful and popular model to represent both individual and group preferences and can be a basis for decision-making models that in general provide as a result a subset of alternatives that can constitute an ultimate solution of a decision problem. To arrive at such a Þnal solution individual and/or group choice rules may be employed. There is a wealth of such rules devised in the context of the classical, crisp preference relations. Originally, most of the popular group decision-making rules were conceived for classical (crisp) preference relations (orderings) and then extended to the traditional fuzzy preference relations. In this paper we pursue the path towards a universal representation of such choice rules that can provide an effective generalization—for the case of fuzzy preference relations—of the classical choice rules. C © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.