Maximality with or without binariness: transfer-type characterizations

We provide the first necessary and su±cient conditions in the literature for the existence of maximal elements in a non-binary choice framework. As an application, the characterization of the existence of maximal elements for acyclic binary relations obtained in Rodriguez-Palmero and Garcia-Lapresta, 2002, Mathematical Social Sciences 43, 55-60, is deduced as a Corollary. Further characterizations in di®erent settings given by Tian and Zhou, 1995, Journal of Mathematical Economics 24, 281- 303, follow as well. Analogous characterization problems in the k- acyclic binary cases are solved too.