[EM] Best method in use?

[Markus Schulze]

Dear Michael Stephan,

in my opinion, the best single-winner method in use today at the
national level is IRV. IRV meets the majority criterion for solid
coalitions. IRV meets independence from clones. And IRV has a higher
Condorcet efficiency than Top-2 Runoff.

Steve Barney wrote (18 Sep 2002):
> I've discovered a professional article on voting theory which seems
> to confirm my argument (see 
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/election-methods-list/message/9057>)
> that the IRV is more likely to elect a Condorcet candidate when one
> exists (with sincere votes) than the two-stage runoff procedure
> (assuming that the preferences remain fixed from one stage to the
> next). Here is an excerpt from Table 1, page 6 (in this article, IRV
> is called the "Hare" method):
>
> Table 1: Condorcet efficiencies for a random profile with 25 voters
> by Merrill (1984)
> procedure \ # alternatives 2 3 4 5 7 10
> RUNOFF 100,0 96,2 90,1 83,6 73,5 61,3
> HARE (TIES) 100,0 96,2 92,7 89,1 84,8 77,9

******

In my opinion, the best multi-winner method in use today is Northern
Ireland's fractional version of proportional representation by the
single transferable vote.

Markus Schulze

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