Samuel von Pufendorf
Samuel von Pufendorf was born in 1632. He studied in Leipzig, Jena and Leiden and held professorships in Heidelberg (1661) and Lund (1670). He left Lund for Stockholm to become a political-jurisprudential councillor at the courts of Sweden.
He then wrote a monumental history of Sweden. He spent the last years of his life in Brandenburg-Prussia as appointed historian. He died in 1694. The book of interest to social choice theorists and economists in general is De Jure Naturae et Gentium (The Law of Nature and of Nations). It was published in 1672. Among the translations, the French one with many additional comments by Jean de Barbeyrac (Le droit de la nature et des gens) played an important role in the French Enlightenment, in particular it influenced both Diderot and Rousseau. Wulf Gaertner (2005) describes in some detail Pufendorf,s contributions to voting and economics. In book VII, chapter II, section 18, one can read:Thus those who fix a fine upon a man, at twenty units of value, may be united with those who fix it at ten units, against such as would acquit him altogether, and the defendant will be fined ten units, because this is agreeable to the majority of judges, in view of the fact that those in favour of the twenty, are included with those in favour of the ten. (Gaertner 2005: 237)
Pufendorf insists on the difference between quantitative options (fines) and qualitative options (here acquittal). According to Gaertner, this can be viewed as single-peaked preferences, with preference orderings from most preferred to least preferred being either 20, ten, acquittal, or acquittal, ten, 20, or ten, 20, acquittal. Of course, in this case, the median option, here ten, is selected by the majority rule. Another possibility would be to consider this example as analogous to Pliny’s example: the judges in favour of a fine of 20 join those in favour of a fine of ten to defeat the acquittal option which is the option they ranked last. This possibility could justify a reference to Pliny’s letter in Pufendorf’s work as indicated by Gaertner.