Just to further muddy the waters on the definition of "majority", note Duverger's use of the term as apparently synonymous with "plurality": http://www.janda.org/c24/Readings/Duverger/Duverger.htm
(BTW the "two-ballot majority system" Duverger discusses is NOT the Runoff method, since there is no fixed elimination rule. Alex Small wrote: > > On the subject of majorities and Margins vs. Winning Votes, my > understanding of the matter (which I will deliver without prejudice, since > I have no strong opinion on the matter) is this: > > Say that two of our pairwise contests in an election are: > > A>B 51-49 > B>C 45-40 > > (Assume there are 100 people casting ballots, at least 3 candidates, and a > cyclic ambiguity to resolve.) > > A majority of the people casting ballots have said "We prefer A to B." A > plurality of the people casting ballots have said "We prefer B to C", with > 15 voters abstaining. > > A winning votes advocate can say "A has majority support relative to B. > That's a stronger defeat for B than C's defeat, since B only beat C with a > minority (plurality) of the people casting ballots." > > A margins advocate can say "Yes, A beats B with a majority of the people > casting ballots. But, B beats C with a _majority of the people > participating in the B vs. C contest_. Since the other people voluntarily > abstained from that contest, we shouldn't consider them, we should only > consider who got a larger percentage of the people participating in each > contest." > > I hope that clears some air on the debate over the word "majority." It > all comes down to "majority of whom? People casting ballots or people > expressing preferences with respect to a particular pairwise contest?" > > I don't claim to resolve any normative issues of which provides a more > socially desirable criteria, or technical issues of which method provides > more perverse strategic incentives. > > Alex > > ---- > For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), > please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em ---- For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em
