Thanks Juho!
It matters for most, if not all, methods, including Plurality.
Individually voters can rarely do anything, collectively they are the
result producers - without any necessity for contact amongst themselves.
Dave Ketchum
On Jun 18, 2009, at 7:22 AM, Juho Laatu wrote:
--- On Thu, 18/6/09, Michael Allan <[email protected]> wrote:
Juho Laatu wrote:
Do you mean that one individual vote
practically never changes the result
of a large election?
One can see this from two viewpoints.
1) can I change the result
2) can I and similar minded people
together change the result
Raph Frank wrote:
Well, you only control yourself.
For perspective: The influence of an individual vote on the
results is
expected to be different between private and public
systems. The
actual influence of a private vote is usually exactly
zero. I guess
it depends a little on the voting method, but it's almost
always zero
in FPTP.
On the other hand, the influence of a public vote is
usually positive,
though incalculable. It is incalculable because the
weight of a
public expression per se cannot be felt in a strictly
subjective,
individual context. It can only be felt in an
inter-subjective,
social context.
Juho, you're perhaps making the opposite mistake? You
look at private
voting from an inter-subjective persepective. I don't
think that's
valid. The vote itself can have no influence on the
behaviour of
other voters. It typically has no influence at all,
except on the
voter herself. So it's purely subjective.
In elections votes are typically kept
secret until counted. So they are not
supposed to influence the decision of
other voters.
My thinking was that although one vote
does not influence the decisions of
others, the factors that influenced the
voting behaviour of one voter are mostly
the same also for other voters, and
similar minded voters are therefore
likely to make similar decisions. The
individual voter may thus trust that
other voters will be there (except if
his/her opinions are marginal) and
together they will influence the outcome
of the election. => "Unless I'm alone,
we can influence."
Juho
(What's also interesting is the objective perspective of
manipulation.
But that means looking at the influence of money and
power, and not
votes per se.)
--
Michael Allan
Toronto, 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/
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