(a) Both of these city-states used range voting (RV):
Venice using {-1, 0, +1} range, and Sparta using a continuum score-range.(b) Both were, at their peak, arguably the most powerful countries in Europe. (c) Both arguably lasted longer than any other substantially democratic government ever. (d) Hardly anybody knows these facts. http://www.rangevoting.org/SpartaBury.html http://www.rangevoting.org/BPSparta.html http://www.rangevoting.org/VenHist.html Any further information would be appreciated. A great deal is known about Venice [my local university library has over 5 meters thick worth of books on the subject and almost certainly most of the old records are preserved] but it is hard to dig out of that mass of information, clear conclusions about range voting. Example questions I'd like answered: 1. Venice elected Doges with range voting. But what other positions did they also elect with RV? [I suspect essentially all, but see no clear-enough description to be sure.] 2. Can a list be made of RV elections and their winners, losers, and vote counts? In which cases do the results seem somehow wrong? [I have listed two elections which were unusual in the VenHist page.] 3. Can a better assessment be made of how democratic their govt was? [For example, in what ways did the non-rich have power, and how were all the far-territories governed?] In contrast, little is known about Sparta. [For example: during what year range(s) did they use RV and have a democratic govt? This is especially unclear in the years when it was a semi-autonomous Roman province.] -- Warren D. Smith http://RangeVoting.org <-- add your endorsement (by clicking "endorse" as 1st step) and math.temple.edu/~wds/homepage/works.html ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
