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The
theorem in economics, due to Kenneth Arrow, which says that you can't
construct a "social preference function" (ranking the desirability
of various social arrangements) out of individual preferences, while
retaining a particular set of features ("nondictatorship" - the
social preference function can't be just one person's
individual preferences; consistency - the social preference function can't
rank A above B, B above C, and C above A; "positive relation"
between individual and social preference - if the social preference function
ranks A above B, and some person's
individual preference changes from "B above A" to "A above
B", that shouldn't cause the social preference to switch to "B
above A"; and an "irrelevance" assumption which I don't quite
remember, but is something like this, that if an individual changes their mind about the relative worth of C and D, it shouldn't
affect the social preference standings of A and B.)
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