Multiple Agent Decision Making

From the CACM, very instructive piece:

Making Decisions Based on the Preferences of Multiple Agents, by Vincent Conitzer
Computer scientists have made great strides in how decision-making mechanisms are used. Communications of the ACM , Vol. 53 No. 3, Pages 84-94

People often must reach a joint decision even though they have conflicting preferences over the alternatives. Examples range from the mundane (such as allocating chores among the members of a household) to the sublime (such as electing a government and thereby charting the course for a country). The joint decision can be reached by an informal negotiating process or by a carefully specified protocol.

Philosophers, mathematicians, political scientists, economists, and others have studied the merits of various protocols for centuries. More recently, especially over the last decade, computer scientists have also become deeply involved in this study .... '.