Individual decisions and collective choices in the history of economic thought

This paper highlights the difficulties encountered in building individual decisions. In addition, possible incompatibilities can be found between individual choices and collective choices. Therefore, focus will be placed on how to transfer an analysis of rational individual choice in the context of collective choices. Voting is usually the most used expression of individual wills to arrive at the formulation of a collective decision. The model used highlights the paradox of electoral participation and hence the benefit of ‘no vote’. Along the path, the difficulties encountered when one tries to transform individual preferences into collective choices through certain procedures will be examined. Therefore, other pathways should be identified in order to describe a number of decision-making procedures in the most appropriate possible way.