Social ChoiceSession 1

Carmen Pasca and John Hey

Session 1• This lecture is partly organisational and partly for you to get to

know us and for us to get to know you. Topics include:• Organisation of the course.• The website.• The lectures.• The other activities: experiments, debates, discussions, exercise

classes.• Assessment.• Contacting us: • Lecturer: Carmen Pasca (cpasca@luiss.it)• Lecturer: John Hey (john.hey@york.ac.uk)• Assistant: Mattia de’ Grassi di Pianura (mdegrassi@luiss.it )

What is the course about?

• Social Choice – the name captures all … and nothing.• It is about choice in society.• How Societies should choose.• How Societies could choose.• How societies can choose.• How Societies do choose.• It is an enormous topic and you are not expected to

memorise all the detail in all its complexity.• We want you to get an overview.• Do not read and memorise … think and generalise.

The organisation of the course

• We have some lectures.• We have some debates.• We have some experiments.• We have some discussions.• There is a problem in that there are lots of students on the

course.• This creates organisational difficulties.• We are happy if the uncommitted students drop out.• We only want committed students who will take an active

role and interact with us and the other students.

The course structure (1)

• Week 1 Session 1: Overview of course. • Week 1 Session 2: How Can Societies Choose? (part

1). Individual preferences and Arrow.• Week 2 Session 3: How Can Societies Choose? (part

2). Weakening Arrow.• Week 2 Session 4: How Can Societies Choose? (part

3). Preferences over Principles.• Week 3 Session 5: Experiment on the above.• Week 4 Session 6: How Can Societies Choose? (part

4). Preferences with Measurable Utilities.

The course structure (2)

• Week 4 Session 7: Strategic Decision Making. • Week 5 Session 8: Public Goods. • Week 5 Session 9: Collective Action.• Week 6 Session 10 An Experiment on Public Goods. • Week 6 Session 11: How Do Societies Choose? (part

1). Definitions at different levels of decision.• Week 7 Session 12: How Do Societies Choose? (part

2). Voting systems to elect decision-making bodies.• Week 7 Session 13: How Do Societies Choose? (part

3). Voting systems within decision-making bodies.

The course structure (3)

• Week 8 Session 14: How do Societies Choose the Way That They Choose?.

• Week 9 Session 15: Social Contract Theory (part 1).• Week 10 Session 16: Social Contract Theory (part 2). • Week 10 Session 17: A Debate on David Cameron's

idea of the Big Society.• Week 11 Session 18: An account of the writing of the

US Constitution.

The course structure (4)

• Week 11 Session 19: A Comparison of different Constitutions, particularly those of the US, France and Italy.

• Week 12 Session 20: An historical discussion of the evolution of the Italian constitutions through several versions.

• Week 12 Session 21: A Cambridge Union type debate on the motion "This House Believes that Italy should adopt the US Constitution".

• Week 13 Session 22: Overview and Conclusion. • Week 13 Session 23: Overview, Revision and Assessment

Preparation. We shall also talk about assessment by Group Project.

The website

• Please look at this frequently: www.luiss.it/hey/social choice/

Lectures

• All the lectures will be available via the site.• We recommend that you look at them both

before and after the lectures…• … so that you come prepared.• You are not expected to memorise the lectures

but instead understand the theme of the lectures and be able to take away general conclusions.

• There will be some reading recommended but you are not expected to memorise the content.

The other activities: experiments, debates, discussions, exercise classes

• With such a large number of students we are not quite sure yet how we are going to organise these other activities.

• But we expect students to take an active role.• We may have to split up the group into smaller

groups in some way.• We may run some experiments in the CESARE

laboratory which is at Viale Pola.• We will be asking for volunteers to take part in the

debates.

Assessment

• We know that this is not important to you, but there are two methods of assessment:

• A conventional examination.• Assessment by Group Project in which a self-appointed

group of students write a project on a self-chosen topic approved by us.

• Some titles from last year:• Berlusconi and Italian Politics: Why Italians Chose a Business Man Named Silvio Berlusconi?• Ill and Poor: Better it to be in the UK or in France?• Is it better to live in a dictatorship or in a democracy?• The Value of the Vote• Mind the Gap! How come Israel had a woman prime minister and Italy not (yet!)? • Social Order: How is social order sustained in human societies?• Voting Systems and Fairness: Two railway tracks: Parallel as in reality or converging as if seen in perspective?• In Sickness and in Health – better to be British or French?• If we decide to establish a new nation, which legal system would we choose?

And finally…

• Do contact one of us if you have any questions.• Otherwise

•ENJOY and LEARN!