From: Chris Benham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [EM] Re: "Approval Later-no-Harm",
... I am of the view that it is possible and desirable to have the situation where the big majority of voters are innocent of strategy and/or not interested in strategy, and I strongly believe that the "official assumption" should be that there is no strategy problem and no problem in determining the will of the voters from their votes. So I'm completely against relying on any random process like random ballot (except as a last resort when candidates are tied according to all the reasonable deterministic processes), or on explicit strategy devices (like ATLO). If the voting method has a big role for Random Ballot, the implied official assumption is "No voting method is immune to strategy, and we know that you voters can't be trusted!". Forest replies: I can see your point and have a certain amount of sympathy for it. But lack of trust is not the only reason for spreading around the chances of getting elected. In small groups deciding from among acceptable options by casting lots or drawing straws is a rather common method of overcoming 100 percent dominance by a bare majority. Any child knows a number of rhymes for deciding who makes the decision this time. In some cases the winner of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" gets to make the choice. This hypothetical example of extreme Hutu, extreme Tutsi and Moderate Hutu in Rwanda 60 H>M>>T 40 T>M>>H illustrates the point. [I may have gotten the proportions backwards.] If these are sincere preferences, then M should have a chance of winning occasionally, not to keep the voters from voting insincerely, but because the smaller ethnic group deserves some satisfaction once in a while, too, to offset the "tyranny of the majority." Under DFC, the direct supporters of H could frustrate the M supporters by insincerely withholding their approval from M. But let's go by your "official assumption" that the voters will tend to vote sincerely under a fair system and not meanly exploit opportunities like this. Peace, Forest
<<winmail.dat>>
---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
