[EM] The Economist: "Democratic Symmetry"

[Rob Lanphier]

This week's Economist (Mar 4-10, 2000 edition) has an article titled
"Democratic Symmetry; The mathematics of voting".  Unfortunately, it is
not one of the articles they decided to put online.  It goes on to explain
Donald Saari's theories on democratic symmetry, and gave an uncritical
look at Borda's method. 

What's the best online critique of Donald Saari's work?  It would be nice
if the Economist received a large number of articulate letters from people
who disagree with Dr. Saari on this matter (especially from other Dr.s)... 
:) 

Let me quote a chunk of the article (The Economist, Mar 4 2000, p. 83):
   The fairest voting system, says Dr Saari, would respect both
   symmetries.  The only system that fits the bill is the Borda count,
   proposed by Jean-Charles de Borda in 1770 to elect members to teh
   Academy of Sciences in Paris. [...] Admittedly, this is more complex
   than plurality voting and cannot be used with current American voting
   machines (though it is used in Australia).  Also if voters are not
   familiar with all candidates, and do not rank them all, the unassigned
   points must be divided up evenly between the unranked candiates.  But
   for small elections, the system is ideal. 

Rob Lanphier
robla at eskimo.com
http://www.eskimo.com/~robla