[EM] Combating the Approval Burr dilemma

[Stephane Rouillon]

I definitively disagree with Abd, the Burr dilemna or any measure of the
number of starategy
a voter has to consider should be the main criteria to evaluate electoral
systems.

If the goal of an electoral system - and I believe it should be it -
is to elect people based on sincere preferences of the electorate,
the first step of a good electoral system should be to obtain the
sincere will of the electorate.  Clearly, any system that encourages
a voter to vote depending of its perception of the candidates support
collects unsincere preferences.

FPTP is a very clear example: it is very easy to use, but encourages different

behaviours depending of the survey's results.

So checking the electorates adopts any strategy is not of the electoral
systems
designers concern, but the fact that (or the frequency at which) they have an
incentive
to strategize should be among our very first interests.

Steph.

Abd ul-Rahman Lomax a écrit :

> At 09:46 AM 11/16/2006, raphfrk at netscape.net wrote:
> >A1 then wins as A1's supporters defected on the agreement even
> >though A2 was the least supported candidate and a minority of
> >the A party liked the candidate.
> >
> >This incentive could result in B winning if both A2 and A1's
> >supporters did it, which results in a minority candidate winning.
>
> The "Burr dilemma" is not a voting system problem, it is a party
> politics problem. The voting system, quite properly, is unconcerned
> about internal party politics. Approval Voting is not, in itself,
> party-list PR.
>
> If a group of voters agree with another set of voters to vote in a
> certain way, and some of them fail to perform on the agreement, it is
> absolutely no concern of the election method. It is not an election
> method failure, period.
>
> Secret ballot makes it impossible to enforce such agreements. The
> solution for a political party is to not rely on such agreements,
> rather the party should conduct itself such that its supporters are
> motivated to approve its candidates. If, instead, some of them prefer
> to vote for someone else, this is their complete right. This is why
> we have candidates on the ballot, not parties, per se.
>
> If there is a faction within a party that wants B to be elected, they
> either have enough votes in that faction to do it or they don't....
> Not our problem, I'd say.
>
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