On the measurement of inequality in the distribution of power in voting procedures

Resumen

This paper deals with the assessment of inequality in the distribution of voting power. As voting procedures are modeled as simple games and power evaluated through power indices, two approaches are possible to deal with inequality in this context, depending on whether the power profiles generated by some power index or the simple games that model the voting rules are taken as primitives. In both cases the mechanical application of previous results does not make sense. This paper uses the first approach to found axiomatically some inequality indices in this specific context and discusses some difficulties with the second approach.