Suchergebnisse

Each of us makes a number of decisions, from the less important to those with
far-reaching consequences. As members of different groups, we are also actors
of group decision making. In order to make a rational decision, a
choice-making procedure must satisfy a number of assumptions (conditions) of
rationality. In addition, when it comes to group decisions, those procedures
should also be ?fair.? However, it is not possible to define a procedure of
choice-making that would transform individual orders of alternatives based on
preferences of perfectly rational individuals into a single social order and
still meet conditions of rationality and ethics. The theory of deliberative
democracy appeared in response to the impossibility of Social Choice theory.
The basic assumption of deliberative democracy is that individuals adjust
their preferences taking into account interests of the community. They are
open for discussion with other group members and are willing to change their
attitudes in order to achieve common interests. Ideally, group members come
to an agreement during public discussion (deliberation). Still, this concept
cannot completely over?come all the difficulties posed by the theory of
social choice. Specifically, there is no solution for strategic and
manipulative behavior of individuals. Also, the concept of deliberative
democracy faces certain problems particular to this approach, such as, to
name but a few, problems with the establishment of equality of participants
in the debate and their motivation, as well as problems with the organization
of public hearings.

Publisher's description: ``Describes basic concepts of rational decision making and decision analysis to the reader -- offers insights that help to systematically analyze decision making problems in professional and private life and helps the reader to come up with a problem solution based on a higher degree of rationality -- updating/inclusion of current research, in-depth discussion of selected topics, additional exercises/case studies. This textbook conveys methods that can improve decision making processes in various fields such as economics, politics, and medicine as well as in personal life. Areas of focus are decision making under conflicting objectives, decision making under risk and uncertainty, decision making with incomplete information about individual preferences or probabilities, and the consideration of time preferences. Special emphasis is placed on the procedures and concepts applicability. Explicit sample applications show the methods benefit for a wide area of decision making problems. Exercises from daily life make it easy for the reader to understand the key insights from decision analysis."" \par This English edition corresponds to the 5th German one. Hence this book is close to completeness. Yet in this reviewer's opinion there are two comments: First a section with hints on the problems for solution is needed. Second a comparison with decision making in animals may be useful since recently [{\it D. Sumpter}, Collective animal behavior. Princeton Univ. Press (2010)] it was shown that collective animal behavior is highly efficient.

Decision Making is a case study of the decision to raise the Bank Rate by 2% (to 7%) on 19 September 1957. Reconsiders selected aspects of the original study in the light of files recently released in the Public Record Office and of other publications since the book was published. (Abstract amended)