Pattern recognition and quantitative political theory

Group decision-making has been a favorite topic of discussion among economists, political scientists, philosophers and even theologians! Two opposite views of social decision problems have emerged from these discussions: the collectivist view which holds that the group exists apart from its individual members; and the pluralistic approach which emphasizes that the group is equivalent to its members, when they are taken in toto. This view, of course, leads to a natural question viz the form or procedure which the decision process is to take. The problem is one of aggregation of a number of divergent opinion patterns --e.g., total orderings of a finite set of options available to society--into a group pattern which somehow strikes a balance between all parties involved. In contrast to the precision of the concept of individual preference as expressed by a definite choice of one alternative over another, the concept of social preference appears rather elusive. Social choices are made everyday but it is seldom the case that a clear-cut social preference can be recognized behind them. In brief, fuzziness is of the very essence of this concept.