Bad Condorcet winners?

[Forest Simmons]

On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, MIKE OSSIPOFF wrote:

> 
> Demorep said:
> 
> >It is not *average* utilities that are important.
>

I think Demorep has a point here.  Instead of optimizing average SU
someone might want to optimize median SU, or most likely SU, or minimize
the likelihood of SU below some cutoff value, etc. especially if the short
run outcome is very critical.

For this reason, I take with a grain of salt the calculated values of
where I should truncate by approved list of candidates. They may be
calculated on maximum expected utility, while I'm trying to maximize some
combination of expected utility and likely utility, for example.

The calculation is a good starting place, but you cannot beat the gut
feeling for that final adjustment.

Forest

 
> Yeah it is. The average SU of a method is what determines what your
> expectation is for future elections for which we don't yet know who
> the candidates will be.
> 
> Worst-case SU wouldn't be important unless you could convincintly
> argue that there was a serious danger that an unliked voter median
> candidate would do irreparable damage or abolish demoncracy. That
> isn't credible, and average SU is what matters.
> 
> Mike Ossipoff
> 
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