Written Assignment 2

This assignment will be like your first written assignment in that I am not looking for you to do research on the topic – I am interested in your personal views and experiences. This time, however, we will look at an issue within Social Choice.

One of the most common forms of governments today is that of democracy. In our notes on social choice, we noted that voting does not satisfy the criteria for social choice as put forward by Arrow. However, there is, perhaps, another problem beyond the potential for a lack of transitivity. This is known as the Tyranny of the Majority.

Simply put, the Tyranny of the Majority states that just because a majority of people think one option is preferred to another, for example x is preferred to y, does not mean that x is better from a social standpoint. I am interested in your thoughts on this. Can you think of an example that you have a personal connection to that illustrates this? Or, perhaps you think that the Tyranny of the Majority is a fallacy and not possible. If so, I would like to hear why you think that as well.

Again, this is not a research assignment. There is lots out there written on the Tyranny of the Majority, but I am interested in your thoughts and any personal connections you might make. As with the first written assignment, I am not going to put any page limits on it, but I would think that 3-4 pages would suffice for most people. It is okay if you have less, but you should think about whether you have dived deep enough, and if you have more, you should check to see if your writing is repetitive.