Showing posts with label arrow's theorem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arrow's theorem. Show all posts

Saturday, December 18, 2010

What "The People" "Want", Part Three: Voting Rules Gone Bad

Last time, I introduced Arrow's Theorem, which states, essentially, that we can't have our voting cake and eat it too. I also showed how plurality rule fails to give us one thing we’d like, transitivity.
Today I want look at the other classic problem: the Borda count and independence of irrelevant alternatives. First, let's review a little bit.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Fielding Reader Questions: The Strength of Voter Preference

Reader F. Tyler asks the following (slightly edited) question regarding the Borda count, a voting method in which people rank alternatives, higher-ranked alternatives get fewer points, and the option with the fewest points wins, just like golf (see this post and its follow-up on basic problems with voting):