IR elects Hitler?

[Steve Eppley]

DEMOREP1 wrote:
>I will not be producing any examples that favor IR over Condorcet.
>I am not sure where you got the idea that I favor IR over Condorcet.

>From your response to the EM sw poll, where you ranked IR 3rd and
left Condorcet unranked.  In all the ranked ballot methods we've
been seriously considering, choices which are explicitly ranked 
are treated as being preferred more than choices which are left
unranked.

That response is what was posted to the ER list, which is much
larger than the EM list.  Possibly Ed Still also forwarded it to
CV&D as Mike requested, and CV&D is much more influential than the EM
list.  At some point they ought to be updated, and persuading you to
do so is the point (for me) of this discussion thread.

>>>Hitler is elected with a mere 65 percent of the voters against him
>>>in his worst (and only) defeat. 
>
>>What makes this a plausible scenario?  Why didn't any decent 
>>candidates compete against this field of horrors?
>
>Once any so-called decent candidates are on the ballot after the
>ballot access deadline, there just might be some research into
>their backgrounds (and especially the backgrounds of their
>supporters to get some guilt by association dirt) for probable
>negative attacks

If you're suggesting decent candidates would avoid running in the
original election because of a fear of negative attacks, then why
would they expect to be immune to negative attacks in a re-election?

If the decent candidates are going to be trashed so they'd lose to a 
horror in a plain Condorcet election, wouldn't they also tend to be 
more disapproved than the horror as well?  How will disapproving all 
the candidates help elect a decent candidate?  If the electorate is 
going to disapprove everyone time after time until they finally 
decide the office mustn't stay vacant, the decent candidates might 
be defeated by attrition, having exhausted their resources.  The 
rich parties will have an even bigger edge.

Hitler wasn't a centrist candidate in Germany.  Condorcet elects
centrists.  But in IR the centrist can easily be among the first to
be eliminated. 

---Steve     (Steve Eppley    seppley at alumni.caltech.edu)