Voting, or a Price System in a Competitive Market Structure

In this brief note it is demonstrated that if all the conditions for the existence of a competitive equilibrium are satisfied, then simple majority voting to determine the distribution of goods may be less efficient than a price system. The argument here may be somewhat cryptic for those not familiar with the work of Anthony Downs.' A considerably more discursive presentation of the background material is given in "A Two Party System, General Equilibrium and the Voters' Paradox."2 The tax and public goods aspect of the voting problem have been discussed elsewhere in "Notes on the Taxonomy of Problems Concerning Public Goods."3 The result presented here, nevertheless, stands by itself, hence is presented in this brief form.