The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal
I. Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to present an impossibility result that seems
to have some disturbing consequences for principles of social choice. A
common objection to the method of majority decision is that it is illiberal.
The argument takes the following form: Given other things in the society,
if you prefer to have pink walls rather than white, then society should
 permit you to have this, even if a majority of the community would like to
 see your walls white. Similarly, whether you should sleep on your back or on
 your belly is a matter in which the society should permit you absolute free-
 dom, even if a majority of the community is nosey enough to feel that you
 must sleep on your back. We formalize this concept ofindividual liberty in
an extremely weak form and examine its consequences.