Utilitarian winner

In an election, the utilitarian winner (UW) is the candidate who would maximize the utility of the voters (the utilitarian welfare function) if they won.

Cardinal voting systems are based on the concept of maximizing cardinal utility, having voters express their estimated utility by scoring the candidates. In this case it is simply the candidate with the highest sum of score.

In most cases, the utilitarian winner and the Condorcet winner (CW) are the same, though it's possible for them to be different.

Advocates of cardinal systems consider the UW to be a better outcome than the Condorcet or a majoritarian winner.