G.M.C. not a standard

Mike Ossipoff dfb at bbs.cruzio.com
Sun Apr 21 01:30:18 PDT 1996


It's just occurred to me that my Generalized Majority Criterion isn't
really a standard, of itself. It could be proposed as one, but it
needn't be, since the lesser-of-2-evils standard & the defensive
strategy standards are sufficient & are well-known. My purpose in
writing the criterion was just as a measure for those 2 standards,
& in case someone asked for a criterion. So that I could then offer
a criterion based on those standards.

So I withdraw my proposal of the G.M.C. as a standard, and my
vote is:

I approve:

* lesser-of-2-evils standard
* defensive strategy standard

I disapprove:

* candidate-counting standard

***

I emphasize that standards don't need a criterion to measure them.
As Steve was saying, criteria aren't really enough, since a yes/no
test doesn't tell the whole story. As I said, I offer the G.M.C. in
case anyone wants a precisely-stated measure of the lesser-of-2-evils
& defensive strategy standards, though it's also perfectly valid to 
compare two methods according to how well they do by those 2 standards,
without using a criterion.

***

Mike



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