ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one of the theorems reflecting the conflict between liberal democracy and consistency. When thinking about escapes from Sen’s theorem, one has to be careful to introduce ideas conflicting with the basic liberal stance causing the paradox. A comprehensive public planning system is seen by some as a threat to individual liberty. Processes for preference change can help to break the impasse, and some of them are outlined in the next section. The main purpose, however, is to discuss if there are escapes from the liberal paradox without rejecting the social choice framework. Certain restrictions on the configurations of individual preferences will prevent the liberal paradox from occurring. The question here is whether the planning process encourages or implies such restrictions. The chapter explains the relevance to planning of a celebrated result in social choice theory, viz., the liberal paradox pointing out the conflict between the Pareto principle and an important aspect of liberalism.
