> On Jan 25, 2009, at 12:40 AM, Juho Laatu wrote:
> > What I mean is that it may quite OK
> > to assume that people are able to
> > find some preference order when
> > voting. And therefore we can force
> > them to do so.

How can any such coercion be compatible with participation in a democracy?  It 
is surely an infringement of my human rights to force
me to express "preferences" I do not have.  As a prisoner, I might confess to 
almost anything under torture (I don't know - I have
never been tested, thank goodness), but I thought this was about voting in 
public elections in a democracy?


> Jonathan Lundell  > Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 10:21 PM 
> If we regard the preference order as list of contingent choices (this  
> view has come up in IRV discussions), then the ability to vote in a  
> plurality election implies the ability to produce such a list, ......

Preferences in IRV elections are contingency choices, but I do not see why the 
ability to pick one winner from the set on offer in a
plurality election in any way implies that I have the ability to produce an 
ordered list of preferences for those candidates who are
not my favourite.  All I need to know for the plurality election is "they are 
not my favourite"  -  I do not need to have any
preferences among the non-favourite sub-set.

James
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