Re: [Fwd: [ga-full] RE: [ga] Voting rules, take 4]

[Michael Froomkin <froomkin@law.miami.edu>]

It is formally correct that there is no perfecft voting system, just as
there is no perfect government.  There are also Much Better and Much
Worse systems for voting as well as government.  STV is Much Better;
first past the post, even with majority requirmenets, is Much Worse.

Harald Tveit Alvestrand wrote:
> 
> At 18:46 20.06.2000 +0200, Mark Measday wrote:
> >Agree (if it comes to a vote about voting)
> >
> >Michael Froomkin wrote:
> > >
> > > I think STV should be available for votes with multiple alternatives.
> > > Otherwise the system is (a) manipulable; (b) interminable.
> 
> It's been formally proven that all voting systems may have outcomes that
> are in conflict with the desires of the voters. (I could probably find
> the issue of Scientific American where this was the subject of the
> recreational mathematics column, if someone really cares...)
> 
> My personal favourite for multiple choice, single winner is Approval
> Voting, because it tends to pick an alternative most of the people can live
> with, and has less temptation towards "tactical voting" than most of the
> other alternatives; for multiple choice, multiple winner I don't have a
> favourite.

I don't have my books to hand being on vacation, but I suspect that one
can prove that approval voting is actually MORE vulerable to tactical
voting than STV.  In STV you in effect "approve" of everything you vote
for (you can refuse to vote for some alternatives at all).  

> 
> But I'd like to keep this ruleset short, and have the vote this week.
> Can we make language changes that let us do a Right Thing now and a Better
> Thing later?
> 

STV is described in the voting systems of most civilized nations and it
should be easy to crib from, say, the German (or Norwegian???)
constiution....

\> 
> --
> Harald Tveit Alvestrand, EDB Maxware, Norway
> Harald.Alvestrand@edb.maxware.no

-- 
A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin@law.tm
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
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