2012), “Does Simple Majority Rule Produce Hasty Decisions?,”mimeo

Abstract. In collective decision-making, impatient voters are attractive allies if some group members want to stop deliberations to decide for their favored alternative. Competition for their votes can lead to hasty outcomes through strategic complementarity in the stopping decision. Simple majority rule may not be robust in that one very impatient agent can cause the whole group to rush to a decision. This can be avoided by super-majority rule. Moreover the impacts of impatient voters and patient voters are not symmetric: one extremely patient agent will not cause the group to deliberate without end under super-majority rule un-less unanimity is required. JEL classification. D71, D72, D8