Voting Power of Citizens in a Democracy

Aakash Gupta

Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, 2025, vol. 24, issue 2, 195-206

Abstract: Shapley and Shubik in 1954 proposed an index to measure the relative voting power of members of a decision-making body, given their weights in the said body. In this article, we have tried to investigate whether one can ensure equal voting power for all the citizens in a democracy through their respective representatives in the state legislature. The article shows that if the citizens realise their voting power through legislators and the number of constituencies in a democracy are at most four, then there does not exist any weighted voting rule such that the citizens enjoy equal voting power. JEL: C71, D71, D72

Keywords: Social choice; weighted voting; voting power; Shapley–Shubik index; democracy; cooperative games (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:artjou:v:24:y:2025:i:2:p:195-206

DOI: 10.1177/09767479231164815

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