Individuals are often thought to make rational decisions based on the utility principle.

While is
sometimes refuted by other principles of philosophy, much more contention exists when it comes to
collective choices and social welfare. As Resnik (1987) indicates, one of the main issues in evaluating the
rationality and fairness in group decisions is that in trying to aggregate group preferences and interests,
social choice theory utilizes subjective individual preferences to explain collective phenomena, which
may appear counter-intuitive. Trying to come up with a collective welfare function from individual
preferences appears implausible since it is not possible to measure and measure and compare individual
utility function objectively

Resnik (1987) indicates that while some utility functions for ranking choices, they are dysfunctional
when cyclic majority choices conflict with each other among groups. Resnik (1987) discusses several
other theories that attempt to explain the rationality of collective choice. However, most of them are
riddled with assumptions and ignore facts. First, it is inherently erroneous to assume that individual
choices are independent of the external environment and society as exemplified by imposed choices
and religiosity. Second, it is commonly held that human beings are inherently Egoistic and would thus
cater for individual interests rather than collective ones and in this regard, individual choices cannot
logically represent those of the entire group. At times, decisions can be made by on very narrow margins
such that a single individual utility to a preference is the determining factor which makes the choice
individual and undemocratic. Also, these theories do not factor in the fact that individuals are often
uncertain of a decision or unaware of all the choices. One Notwithstanding, I believe that the rational
collective choice theory makes a good attempt at justifying collective decisions, by quantifying
collective, where their maximization justifies collective choices.