SEQUENTIAL PATH INDEPENDENCE AND SOCIAL CHOICE

Arrow's general impossibility theorem shows that every Paretian social choice function which satisfies independence of irrelevant alternatives and the Axiom of Sequential Path Independence is necessarily dictatorial. It is shown that the existence of a dictator can be established without invoking full path independence. We propose an axiom of weak path independence of a sequential choice procedure. This axiom turns out to be independent of the factor that is critical in obtaining dictatorship or oligarchy results in the choice theoretic framework. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.