Deliberation

An economic perspective on collective decision-making

Abstract

Collective decisions often involve a phase of discussion and information acquisition prior to voting. On this process of deliberation many disciplines offer different views. Political philosophy and political science offer ideal models inspired by principles of impartiality, cooperation and common good. Economics looks through the perspective of a single agent who seeks to maximize his own utility in a partial and competitive way. Experimental results show that the economic models currently in use, which considering only the competitive component, are incapable of explaining the presence of cooperative dynamics that contribute to agreement among participants. Hence there is room for modelling and exploring deliberative processes that combine competition and cooperation.