Majority preferences can cycle even when every individual's preferences are consistent.
A majority may prefer A to B, B to C, and C to A. Condorcet's 1785 discovery is the root of Arrow's theorem and the reason agenda order can determine committee outcomes.
In practice
- A committee of three prefers option A to B, B to C, and C to A, and whoever sets the agenda decides the outcome.
- A restaurant group ranks three sites differently depending on which two are compared first, and the chair schedules the comparison that gets the answer.
- Standing
- Not to be confused with Downs's paradox of voting, which asks why anyone votes at all.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- The paradoxes of democracy and the quips of partisans