Voting with intensity

Can intense preferences be accommodated in voting schemes without shifting power to wealthier citizens and organized interests.' This article first si tuates the question within the larger issue of the inalienability of some l egal rights, and then focuses on collective action problems among voters. T hese problems offer a way to explain our present rules and intuitions regar ding vote buying and related matters in areas ranging from corporate law to associations and to campaign finance reform. But in large-scale general el ections, collective action problems are likely to doom strategies for extra cting information about intense preferences, and they may even produce perv erse results. Still, there may be room for careful innovation, aimed at cap turing information about intense preferences.