Measuring ConsensusConcepts, Comparisons, and Properties

Resumen

Human beings do not live in isolation and they have to take many decisions collectively. Examples include the election of firm representatives, the decision of where to build a new school, and the task of how to share natural resources. Equally, the satisfaction of a single individual usually depends on the performance of the group; just think of the problem of shirking in team production. To obtain a good collective performance and, as a consequence, a high individual satisfaction, it is important that collective decisions are taken with consensus. This is because in many instances, it is not beneficial for the society as a whole if the decision is imposed by a subset of the individuals—even if this subset includes more than half of the collective— as there may be other alternatives that are more accepted by the rest of the members and that increase the overall satisfaction.