On May 9, 2008, at 13:39 , Jobst Heitzig wrote:
Dear Juho,
you wrote:
(Roughly the question is if one wants to
give Stalin and other unwanted fellows a small probability to become
elected or a zero probability.)
I don't think this is the point. To the contrary, bringing up such
examples is quite misleading, I think, because extreme options are
not at all a problem of non-deterministic methods only.
Yes, but as I see it the reasons are different. In a typical non-
deterministic method like random ballot I think it is the intention
to give all candidates with some support also some probability of
becoming elected. In the deterministic methods electing some non-
popular extremist is typically an unwanted feature and a result of
the method somehow failing to elect the best winner.
*No* election or decision method should be applied without first
checking the feasibility of options with respect to certain basic
requirements. This sorting out the "constitutional" options cannot
be subject to a group decision process itself since often the
"unconstitutional" options have broad support (Hitler is only the
most extreme example for this).
In other words, without such a feasibility check *before* deciding,
also majoritarian methods can produce a very bad outcome (think of
Rwanda...).
Ok, this looks like an intermediate method where one first has one
method (phase 1) that selects a set of acceptable candidates and then
uses some other method (phase 2) (maybe non-deterministic) to elect
the winner from that set.
There is need for pure non-deterministic methods like random ballot,
and pure deterministic methods, and also combinations of different
methods may be useful.
Also in the case where the no-good candidates are first eliminated I
see the same two different philosophies on how the remaining
candidates are handled. Either all remaining candidates (with some
support) are given some probability or alternatively one always tries
to elect the best winner. The intention was thus not to say non-
deterministic methods would not work properly but that there are two
philosophies that are quite different and that may be used in
different elections depending on the nature of the election.
Due to this difference I'm interested in finding both deterministic
and non-deterministic solutions for the challenge.
Juho
Yours, Jobst
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