Arrow's (1951) Social Choice and Individual Values offered a very general conception of social choice, but he then specialized it to welfare economics. The book argues with Bergson about the meaningfulness of the Bergson-Samuelson SWF. He writes:
Mathematically, the Bergson social welfare function has … the same form as the social welfare function we have already discussed … Hence, the Possibility Theorem … is applicable here; we cannot construct a Bergson social welfare function … that will satisfy Conditions 2–5 and that will lead to a true social ordering for every set of individual tastes.
Arrow (1951, p. 72)
