Change in defensive strategy definition

[Dave Ketchum]

My real topic last time was asking for words more difficult to misinterpret.

This time, if Mike's intention is to be inclusive, I also claim his words 
need to be consistent with my opinion that D properly wins in:
      19 A,B
      19 B,C
      19 C,A
      43 D,E

Dave Ketchum

On Sat, 31 Aug 2002 03:28:45 +0000 MIKE OSSIPOFF started this:

On Mon, 02 Sep 2002 10:12:40 +0000 MIKE OSSIPOFF wrote:

> I'd said:
> 
>> The strength of a majority pairwise for X over Y is measured by
>> the number of people who prefer X to Y.
> 
> 
> Dave Ketchum replied:
> 
> Seems like that sentence is missing something:
> Suppose 10 people prefer X to Y.
> Shouldn't strength then be affected according to whether 5 or 55
> prefer Y to X?
> 
> I reply:
> 
> First, let me clarify that, by "majority", I mean a majority of
> all the voters in that election.
> 
> If 55 prefer Y to X, and 10 prefer X to Y, then we certainly can't
> say that X has a majority pairwise preference to Y. I agree with
> you on that. If a majority of all the voters prefer X to Y, then
> only a smaller number can prefer Y to X.
> 
> But say that the number preferring Y to X is smaller than the
> number preferring X to Y, as it must be in order for X to have
> a majority preference against Y. You're asking if we should
> consider that smaller number who prefer Y to X, when evaluating
> the strength of the majority pairwise preference.
> 
> But what's the obvious way to judge the strength or size of
> a majority? By how _big_ a majority it is. And so it's irrelevant how
> many people prefer Y to X. As soon as we say "majority", we're
> talking about a majority-size group. The only majority size group,
> as regards X & Y, is the one that prefers X to Y.
> 
> We compare 2 majorities by asking which is the larger majority.
> If 60% prefer X to Y, and 55% prefer Y to Z, then the XY majority
> is a bigger majority than the YZ majority. That's true without regard
> to whether a person is a wv advocate or a margins advocate, though I
> admit that it creates a difficult justification problem for a
> margins advocate.
> 
> Mike Ossipoff

-- 
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   Dave Ketchum    108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708    607-687-5026
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