[EM] Hybrid Beats-All/Approval v. Straight Approval

[Forest Simmons]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Bart Ingles wrote:
> 
> Rob LeGrand wrote:
> > 
> > Good idea; it would make a fun project.  But note that most Condorcet
> > methods perform significantly better in my sincere-ballot simulations
> > than Approval, which should be seen as a *very* rough approximation of
> > CR.  I think we should be very careful drawing conclusions from
> > individual contrived examples.
> 
> How did your simulations differ from Merrill's?  Were you using position
> in policy space to determine voter utilities, etc?
> 

I am not overly impressed by using "Average Social Utility" as a standard
of performance.

High average social utility is beneficial only in a society where that
utility is apt to be spread around in the society.

In my way of thinking "Average Sincere Social Approval" is a better
standard of measurement for our world's societies.

"Median Social Utility" would be a better standard than expected or
average social utility.

Countries with a few hundred billionaires and hundreds of thousands of
peasants may have a high average of social utility, but will have a low
median, and a low number of above poverty level households. 

Forest