Page "Social choice theory" Paragraph 1

Social choice theory blends elements of welfare economics and voting theory.

It is methodologically individualistic, in that it aggregates preferences and behaviors of individual members of society.

A characteristic approach proceeds from a set of reasonable axioms of social choice to a social welfare function ( or constitution ).

Many earlier results uncover the logical incompatibility of various axioms and, having revealed thus the aggregation problem, suggest reformulation or theoretical triage in dropping some axiom ( s ).