Ok, in a stable system with well established connections between
"nodes" that stability will increase. I was concerned about the
ability of individuals to move large masses of votes (larger than
what they got directly in the election) by just their own individual
decision. Maybe the misuse of such power (e.g. changing one's opinion
just before an important election) should be eliminated somehow.
Juho
On Aug 21, 2008, at 15:06 , Michael Allan wrote:
Juho wrote:
There is a difference between methods where only voters can modify
their
votes at any time and methods where the candidate that got some
votes can
redirect these votes. The latter case may cause larger and faster
changes.
And such changes may lead to reactions also among those voters
that gave
their vote to this person (if the voters do not like the change).
These
properties may mean higher instability.
I argue the opposite. My guess is that, in mid-term:
a) the tree structure (pattern of vote flow) will be highly stable
b) it will be especially stable if the leaf voters are disconnected
(but I do not advocate that)
(a) It will be stable because the tree will not only model opinion,
which can easily shift, but also a structure of power and lines of
communication, which cannot. In practice, power is going to be
delegated from the center (root) to the periphery (leafward) of the
tree, following the lines of voting, and the rules of patronage. And
communication channels will form along those same lines. Once this
structure crystallizes, vote shifts be detrimental to the delegates at
all levels, and to most of the leaf voters too. The effect of a vote
shift will be to unplug oneself from the power structure.
(b) There may be some bleeding of votes at the very edges. Voters who
aren't really plugged in, because they don't communicate much with
their local delegates will have nothing to lose by shifting their
votes around. As long as they aren't too numerous, these shift voters
will perform a useful function as an early warning system (canaries in
the coal mine).
The problem (as I see it) is the opposite. The problem is to
understand roughly how this stability is going to break down (or not)
on approaching the end of a term, and the possibility of a formal
power shift.
--
Michael Allan
Toronto, 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/
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