?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.relation=https%3A%2F%2Fpure.iiasa.ac.at%2Fid%2Feprint%2F4183%2F&rft.title=Optimal+Group+Decisions&rft.creator=Young%2C+H.P.&rft.description=Consider+a+group+of+individuals+who+must+rank+a+set+of+decisions+or+choices.+If+the+members+of+the+group+disagree%2C+how+should+their+opinions+be+reconciled+into+a+group+ordering%3F+Historically+we+may+discern+two+ways+of+answering+this+question.+The+%22relativist%22+approach%2C+which+is+the+dominant+one+in+the+modern+social+choice+literature%2C+holds+that+differences+of+opinion+arise+largely+from+differences+in+preferences+or+values.+Hence+the+objective+should+be+to+strike+a+fair+compromise+between+differences+of+opinion.+The+%22rationalist%22+approach%2C+which+was+an+article+of+faith+among+the+eighteenth-century+founders+of+voting+theory%2C+holds+that+differences+of+opinion+arise+from+misperceptions+about+the+true+merit+of+different+decisions.+For+them+the+goal+was+to+find+the+ordering+that+is+most+likely+to+be+%22correct%22+or+%22true%22.+These+two+positions+are+not+incompatible.+Under+suitable+conditions%2C+in+fact%2C+they+yield+the+same+method%2C+which+was+first+proposed+in+a+rudimentary+form+by+Condorcet.+We+show+that+it+can+be+characterized+by+a+slight+weakening+of+the+independence+of+irrelevant+alternative+condition.&rft.publisher=WP-94-026&rft.date=1994-04&rft.type=Monograph&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text&rft.language=en&rft.identifier=https%3A%2F%2Fpure.iiasa.ac.at%2Fid%2Feprint%2F4183%2F1%2FWP-94-026.pdf&rft.identifier=++Young%2C+H.P.+%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fpure.iiasa.ac.at%2Fview%2Fiiasa%2F2539.html%3E++(1994).++Optimal+Group+Decisions.+++IIASA+Working+Paper.+IIASA%2C+Laxenburg%2C+Austria%3A+WP-94-026+++++