Cycles and Social Choice

Thomas Schwartz is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles. In the 1970s he migrated to political science from economics, previously having studied philosophy (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh). With numerous journal publications and citations in all three disciplines and in mathematics, he is also the author of Freedom and Authority (1970), The Art of Logical Reasoning (1980), and The Logic of Collective Choice (1986). Many of his research results relate to the mathematical theory of voting and social choice, the subject of this book. His articles can be found in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, the American Journal of Political Science, and Public Choice, among other places.

• Introduction; 1. Condorcet's two discoveries; 2. Incidence of the paradox; 3. Social rationality; 4. Arrovian cycle theorems; 5. Second line of cycle theorems: Condorcet generalizations; 6. Top cycles in a fixed feasible set; 7. Strategic consequences of cycles; 8. Structural consequences of cycles; 9. Questions about prediction and explanation; 10. Questions about prescription and evaluation.

'Thomas Schwartz reveals the mysteries of voting cycles, including their connections to famous results in social choice theory and game theory. Instead of bewailing cycles as incoherent, he casts them in a penetrating, positive light. Additionally, Cycles and Social Choice illuminates the philosophical implications of cycles for democratic rule, and their empirical ramifications for such political institutions as legislatures and political parties.' Steven J. Brams, New York University