----- Original Message ----- From: "MIKE OSSIPOFF" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 3:33 AM Subject: Re: [EM] Unranked IRV versus Approval - divergent winners exist! > > >Because there IS no best that will be agreed by all. > > But presumably there are some methods that seem to _you_ to be better > than others. So why should you advocate less. > > Majority rule is not a > >well defined concept with 3 or more choices. > > ...certainly not by IRVies. There are 2 definitions of majority--the > universal definition, and the IRVie definition. > > What does majority mean, no matter how many candidates there are? > More than half of the voters. > > What does majority rule mean, no matter how many candidates there are? > A majority getting its way. With nearly all single-winner methods > (but maybe not with Borda), a majority can always get its way. > If it wants to elect someone, that's easy. It also has the power to > ensure that a certain candidate _won't_ win. If we were to just say > that majority rule means a majority getting its way, and not qualify > that, then, no how many or how few candidates there are, majority rule > would be a useless standard, since all methods meet it. If a majority supports a single candidate, any method may do. The question is how do you convince people to compromise to find a majority among 3 or more strong choices. > > So how about a majority getting its way by sincere voting? That's > something that the majority defensive strategy criteria measure, and > IRV fails all of those criteria. Condorcet's method meets all of them. > Approval meets one of them, WDSC, in addition to the additional > defensive strategy criterion FBC. > > > > Approval and Condorcet are > >not single votes - they are N and N*(N-1)/2 elections which must be merged > >somehow to pick a winner. > > It isn't clear why you think that Approval is about N elections. Approval asks voters N independent questions. Will you vote for A? Will you vote for B? ... Condorcet asks the voters N*(N-1)/2 questions. Who do you support more strongly A or B? Who do you support more strongly A or C? ....
