I haven't calculated the best strategy for the example that was being discussed, the one where A has utility of 1, B is .1 & C is 0. But I can probably guess it. First, though there could be other instances that I haven't looked at, the only benefits that I've known about or encountered for truncation in Condorcet have been for the purpose of deterring offensive order-reversal. And if the goal is to influence other voters, then one should announce one's intention to truncate, something not permitted in a 0-info election. Still, other voters who've studied the strategy might know that it could be in your interest to truncate or use a mixed strategy including truncation, just so that they'll know you might do it. If so, I can't say for sure that there'd be no reason to truncate. Hopefully we don't have to get into strategy-interaction like that for 0-info Condorcet strategy. And in that case, there's probably no reason to truncate. However little we like B more than C, there's still some benefit to ranking B, and probably no disadvantage. I'd expect that if B is close enough to A in merit, then there'd be a point at which it would be optimal to rank B in 1st place with A. I'd expect that if B is close enough to C in merit there's some point at which it would be optimal to rank B below A (but over C). And I'd guess that, if B is only 1/10 of the way from C to A, in merit, that it will turn out that it's better to rank B in 1st place, with A. But that's only a guess. Even with 3 candidates, there are lots of situations to check. Enough so that it's a fairly big job, without using a computer program. With more than 3, unless I'm mistaken, one just wouldn't want to consider it without a computer program. But it won't affect my opinions of the methods, because there are other things that I judge them by, and which I consider more important. But there could be times when I'd use calculated strategy in Condorcet. Mike Ossipoff ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
