5. Sequential pairwise voting

One option for a group of individuals that has to choose an alternative from a set of many alternatives is to conduct a sequence of two-way votes. Such a procedure is called a binary agenda. How does the outcome of a binary agenda depend on the sequence of choices and the individuals’ preferences? Does the outcome have desirable properties? For some agendas, in some subgame perfect equilibria with undominated voting the outcome is dominated, but in agendas in which votes successively eliminate alternatives, no such equilibrium outcome is dominated. The power of an agenda-designer to determine the outcome is investigated, as well as the nature of the equilibrium strategies in a class of agendas when the individuals have single-peaked preferences.