[EM] Borda strategy

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

>>By strategy matrix, I mean the matrix that would be multiplied by
>the voter utilities to get what you call the strategic values. Asking
>what the matrix looks like is not the same as asking what the
>strategy should be. Even though you don't need a strategy (other
>than sincere ranking) for Condorcet, that matrix exists (for
>practical purposes, I believe it's the identity matrix).

You're fairly sure that Condorcet uses Weber's strategic values?
And I wasn't aware that we'd discussed any other strategic values.

(Actually Weber had a different name for those. "Strategic value" is
a term that I got from Merrill--it seems to be more descriptive).

In the event that people actually used strategy in non-0-info
Condorcet, it would only make sense as a game-theory sort of situation.
I'm not so sure that you'd have a reason to calculate Weber's strategic
values.

>For Borda, and for that matter, for cumulative voting, I think there
>are some interesting things to be learned from looking at the strategy
>matrix. Not things to be learned about strategy, but things to be
>learned about the methods themselves. This may even point to ways
>to improve those methods. Probably, others have already picked up
>on this, and I'm just being redundant.
>
>I suspect there is a mathematical way to calculate an IRV strategy
>matrix, at least in principal.

In IRV it wouldn't be enough to calculate Weber's strategic values,
which is what you say your strategy matrix is about.

In Runoff, where it's vote-for-1, there's something roughly analogous
to strategic values, involving several summations and having many kind of
probabilities as input. But I'm not sure what "strategic value" could
mean in a rank method.

Mike Ossipoff

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com