I also value Participation highly, but it seems extremely difficult to meet. I wonder if anyone has put thought into the circumstances where it should be permissible to fail Participation.
For instance, the 100 voters above could conceivably have used strategy (in Bucklin or RWE) to avoid giving the election to D... Particularly if they think C is the best compromise, which he is.
But if you can hurt your interests by voting, in cases where it would be impossible for you to foresee, that seems unacceptable.
If finding the option most acceptable to the group is of any importance to a voter, they cannot harm their own interests. A kind of person for whom this would not be important would be a dictator, someone involved in the overthrow of the government, etc...or basically anyone else who is unwilling to submit to the preference of the group as a whole.
As such, any method which is capable of finding the group preference would be one in which it is acceptable to fail Participation.
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