Resumen de Settings of Consensual Processes: Candidates, Verdicts, Policies
Social choice theory deals with mutual compatibilities of various choice criteria or desiderata. It thus provides a natural angle to look at methods for finding consensus. We distinguish between three types of settings of consensus-reaching. Firstly, we may be looking for the correct decision. This is typically the setting where the participants have different degrees of expertise on an issue to be decided. Also jury decision making falls into this category. Secondly, the setting may involve the selection of one out of a set of candidates for e.g. a public office. Thirdly, we may be looking for a policy consensus. This setting is otherwise similar to the candidate choice setting, but usually involves more freedom in constructing new alternatives. Once these settings and relevant results in each one of them have been reviewed, we discuss the implications of some choice paradoxes to consensus-reaching methods.
