Characterizing majority rule: from profiles to societies

K. May characterized majority rule as a function satisfying anonymity, neutrality, and responsiveness. Recent work criticized his characterization and opened the way to the introduction of properties defined by taking into account an entire set of societies. Following this approach, this paper presents a new axiomatization of majority rule that appeals, besides a variant of Mayʹs responsiveness, to new properties I will call “null society” and “subsets decomposability”.