TRAGIC CHOICES AND COLLECTIVE DECISION-MAKING - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY OFVOTER PREFERENCES FOR ALTERNATIVE COLLECTIVE DECISION-MAKING MECHANISMS

Central to this paper has been the idea that there might be a demand o n the part of the citizens for having specific decision-mechanisms in specific types of situations. This demand cannot be deduced on purely theoretical grounds, but rather should be registered case by case. The ory might help in categorising classes of situations where decisions c an be tackled with the same approach. In any case, the choice of a dec ision-mechanism should not be left completely at the discretion of the policy-maker if the citizens's welfare is to be promoted in a suitabl e way.