(Oops - seems that I clicked "Reply" instead of "Reply to All". Let's
try that again.)
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It appears that your mail program has seriously mangled your reply,
bunching up all the text into a single block. In addition, it seems to
have sent multiple versions of your reply in the same message.
Therefore, I couldn't see all of the replies in detail, but I did pick
out some that I will reply to.
My point about G&S implying every voting method has to hold something
behind his back is not about FBC in particular. From what I understand,
you're saying that FBC is much more important than the other criteria
because US voters are so overcompromising they won't vote honestly if
they know they could benefit Compromise by ranking him first. (Even
though, even in Plurality with its very clear punishment of
non-compromises, US voters sometimes go for their true favorite, e.g.
Ross Perot in 92.) So you say that Condorcet is at a disadvantage
because it doesn't pass FBC, and "perhaps it can win even with an arm
behind its back". What I am saying is that if you take the view that FBC
is just one desideratum, then all methods have to hold *something*
behind their backs. It might be FBC, it might be clone independence, it
might be LIIA or rank expressivity. You just can't have them all.
So if you say "perhaps Condorcet can win even with something behind it's
back", that's not particular to Condorcet. If what you mean is "perhaps
Condorcet can win even with FBC behind its back", then okay. That's more
clear. It doesn't *as such* put Condorcet at a disadvantage, because you
can't have every criterion. Perhaps Condorcet can win even though it
doesn't have FBC? Perhaps Approal can win even though it doesn't have
full ranking. Perhaps Asset can win even though it has an intermediate
layer between the voters and the representatives. And so on... These are
all disadvantages. Which are worse disadvantages is another matter, and
I've given reasoning for why FBC failure might not be so devastating
after all, even in the United States.
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