The object of this paper is to propose a consistency test for an individual involved in collective choice process. Collective choice processes considered in the paper are those that transform individuals `tastes' - which reflect the self-interested view point of the individuals - into (social) ranking of alternatives. In addition to her tastes, an individual has values about the way by which collective decision should be made. We distinguish two categories of such values. First, there are end-values that restrict the class of social rankings that the individual considers ethically acceptable. Second there are aggregation-values that specify the way by which the social ranking should depend upon the individuals tastes. The consistency test stands on an hypothetical operation of universalization of the individual tastes to everyone. Five illustrations of the potential usefulness of our approach for interpreting social choice theory and welfare economics are proposed. These illustrations deal with utilitarian aggregation in the presence of income inequality aversion, the so-called `ethics of responsibility' and the aggregation of individual ranking of opportunity sets based on their freedom of choice. A discussion of the relevance of the consistency test for addressing the problem of `laundering' individual preferences is also provided.

This paper examines a possibility of enlarging the domain of definition of individual preferences suggested by the recent literature on freedom of choice. More specifically, the possibility for an individual to have preferences that depend upon both the opportunity set that she faces and the particular alternative that she chooses from that set is considered. Even more specifically, the possibility for these preferences to value freedom of choice, as defined by the set theoretic relation of inclusion, while being consistent, in a certain sense, with the existence of a preference ordering over the options contained in opportunity sets is investigated. It is shown in the paper that a necessary condition for the existence of any transitive extended preferences of this type is for freedom of choice to be given no intrinsic importance.

[fre] L'approche de la régulation, développée initialement en France au milieu des années soixante-dix, propose une compréhension des modes de développement des économies capitalistes avancées. Dans cet article, nous présentons un modèle économétrique de neuf équations simultanées (dont cinq équations de bouclage du système) qui représente un essai de formalisation et de vérification de l'approche de la régulation dans le contexte canadien à partir d'observations trimestrielles pour trois sous-périodes comprises entre 1947 et 1989.. La principale conclusion est que l'hypothèse d'un régime fordiste d'accumula­tion qui a encadré le développement de l'économie canadienne passe relative­ment bien l'épreuve des faits. On constate aussi des changements structurels significatifs du régime d'accumulation fordiste pour chacune des sous-périodes. [eng] Estimation of a simultaneous equation model. . The regulation approach, initially developed in France in the mid 70's, is an analytical framework for understanding the development of advanced capitalist economies. In this paper, an econometric model is built with nine equations (five are pseudo identities) and is an attempt at formalizing and testing the regulation approach in Canada from quarterly observations pertaining to three sub-periods included between 1947 and 1989. The main conclusion is that the hypothesis of a fordist accumulation regime which characterized the development of the Canadian economy fits the fact relatively well. Structural changes of the fordist regime are observed and tested for each sub-period.