Condorcet Winners and Social Acceptability

Abstract

We say that an alternative is socially acceptable if the number of individuals who rank it among their most preferred half of the alternatives is at least as large as the number of individuals who rank it among the least preferred half. A Condorcet winner may not be socially acceptable. However, if preferences are single-peaked or satisfy the single-crossing property, any Condorcet winner is socially acceptable.

Keywords: Condorcet winner, single-peaked preferences, single-crossing

JEL Classification: D71, D72