Refer to Table 18-3. The table above outlines the rankings of three members of the U.S. Senate on three spending alternatives

Question

Assume that Congress can spend additional revenue on only one of the three spending alternatives and that Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, all members of the Senate, participate in a series of votes in which they are to determine which of the spending alternatives should receive funding. Three votes will be taken: (1 ) Immigration Reform and Unemployment Benefits (2 ) Immigration Reform and Social Security Reform and (3 ) Unemployment Benefits and Social Security Reform.

Answer 1

First vote:
Immigration Reform Unemployment Benefits Selection
Bart 1st 3rd Immigration Reform
Lisa 2nd 1st Unemployment Benefits
Maggie 3rd 2nd Unemployment Benefits

First vote: the majority votes for spending on Unemployment Benefits.

Second vote:
Immigration Reform Social Security Reform Selection
Bart 1st 2nd Immigration Reform
Lisa 2nd 3rd Immigration Reform
Maggie 3rd 1st Social Security Reform

Second vote: the majority votes for spending on Immigration Reform.

Third vote:
Unemployment Benefits Social Security Reform Selection
Bart 3rd 2nd Social Security Reform
Lisa 1st 3rd Unemployment Benefits
Maggie 2nd 1st Social Security Reform

Third vote: the majority votes for spending on Social Security Reform.
The results of the voting process do illustrate the voting paradox because the preferences of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are not transitive. If their preferences were transitive, we would find that if the voters prefer to spend on Unemployment Benefits rather than Immigration Reform (the result of the first vote), and they prefer to spend on Immigration Reform rather than Social Security Reform (result of the second vote), they should prefer to spend on Unemployment Benefits rather than Social Security Reform. In fact, they prefer to spend on Social Security Reform rather than Unemployment Benefits (the result of the third vote). This is an example of the voting paradox, which is defined as the failure of majority voting to always result in consistent choices.