Liberalism, Populism, and Collective Choice

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This paper examines how the problem of cyclical majorities affects the logical structure of the liberal model of democracy. I argue that Riker's (1982) defense of liberalism is unsatisfying in that it ultimately depends upon the hope that cycles are not common events. As an alternative solution, I propose that the assumptions of a properly construed liberal model imply conditions that prohibit the occurrence of the voter's paradox. I conclude that liberalism continues to survive despite the fact that its internal structure depends upon the transitivity of collective preferences, and that this fact in turn provides a theoretical foundation for pursuing more robust or "populistic" conceptions of democracy.