[EM] Monotonicity, but Participation too

[Blake Cretney]

On Sun, 16 Jul 2000, Markus Schulze wrote:
 
> Dear Blake,
> 
> you wrote (16 July 2000):
> > So, is your position that it is impossible for the choice of
> > electoral method to affect the quality of government?  Or that we
> > have no hope of choosing methods that provide better government?
> 
> My position is that it is not possible to measure the "quality" of
> the government in an objective manner.

Dear Markus,

I agree with that, but it has nothing to do with whether the choice
of electoral method may affect the quality of government, or whether
there are some sets of ballots for which there are correct choices as
I have been using the term.
 
> You wrote (16 July 2000):
> > Would you say that in the following situation,
> >
> > 70 A > B
> > 30 B > A
> >
> > that we cannot say whether A or B is the correct choice, in the
> > sense that I am using the word "correct"?  That is, that we
> cannot
> > say which choice will in general provide the better government.
> 
> To my opinion, candidate A should be elected because more than half
> of the voters strictly prefer candidate A to every other candidate.
> But that doesn't necessarily mean that candidate A is objectively
> the better governor.
> 
> If you want to say "Vox populi vox dei!" then I have to disagree
> with you.

But I never said that candidate A was the better governor.  I said it
was the better choice for the method.  It's the choice that I believe
will on average provide the better governor.  Whether A provides
better government in any particular case, however, requires more
information than the ballots show.

Simply put, I am suggesting that if all we know is that a majority
have chosen A over B, then I argue that on average a method that
selects A will provide better government than a method that selects
B.  Maybe you disagree with that.  Maybe you don't.  The choice that
on average provides the best government for a particular situation I
call the correct choice.  

I hope that this clears up some of the confusion.  I really don't
want to have to deal with any more rebuttals that assume I have said
that the majority is always right, that we can objectively prove that
one candidate is better than another, or some other nonsense.

---
Blake Cretney