Collective Choice

In Part I we examined how groups can overcome inherent difficulties involved inproviding themselves with public goods. Another aspect of the problem was notdiscussed. Solving dilemmas to achieve shared goals usually requires collectivechoice: a centralized decision. Just because unanimous support forsome collective solution should always be possible, as allobservers of politics have witnessed, rarely is collective choice of any sort– much less by unanimity – easy to come by. Frequently more isneeded than making sure the group is organized to collect and apply resourcesneeded to carry out collective projects. Collective, binding decisions arerequired regarding what is to be done. This process is anything but simple. Someof the roadblocks that make for these difficulties are analyzed in this (and thenext) part of this volume.

We humans have a long and difficult history of trying to engineer“good” political systems to reach collective choices. We haveruled ourselves with various sorts of regimes, which we might divide into twooverly broad classes: authoritarian and democratic. And here, in spite of thecontemporary Western bias to democracy, looking at the landscape of politicalhistory, one notices that people have prospered under a variety of regimes.Civilization did not require democracy. But it did require an element of decentgovernment. Since a degree of general prosperity is needed for the leaders, eventhe rare Stalins and Caligulas of the world have to consider constraints totheir behavior in order to bolster the welfare of their citizens. Although, inmost situations, the fate of governments is at least loosely tied to theinterests of the citizenry, the requirements of prosperity seem quiteconstraining. In modern times the attempt to tether governments to the interestsof the citizens has been intimately related to the establishment and design ofdemocratic governments. Much of this effort has proven successful. Moderndemocracies have had quite a track record at improving the conditions of theircitizens. In this section of the book, I explore some properties of democraticgovernments that help us understand their potential, and their difficulties.