[EM] Condorcet 2 - The Sequel ( the same people say the same things)

[Eric Gorr]

At 5:48 PM -0400 8/7/03, Dgamble997 at aol.com wrote:
>Why the unrealistic example is unrealistic:
>
>40A
>35C>B
>30B
>
>This example is not realistic because it is extremely unlikely that 
>all the supporters of one party would express a second preference 
>whilst none of the supporters of the two other parties would.

The example does not remain fundamentally different if I merely change it to:

40 A>B>C
35 C>B>A
30 B>A>C

As such, it is irrelevant whether I gave the second or third 
preferences. The fundamental flaw in IRV still holds.

B is eliminated first, while A wins even though > 60% of the 
population preferred B over A.

>Why this example is not  that unrealistic:
>
>49 A>B>C
>3  B>A>C
>48 C>B>A
>
>Bedfordshire South-West
>British General Election 2001
>
>Conservative         42.1%
>Liberal Democrat   14.8%
>Labour                 40.4%
>Other                    2.7%
>
>In every British general election since Feb 1974 you could probably 
>find approximately 100 similar results ( out of 635- 659 
>constituencies).

I agree, it is realistic, I simply don't recognize the problem here. 
The unambiguous winner should be B since:

   > 50% of the voters wanted B over C
   > 50% of the voters watned B over A

Of course, 97% of the voters wanted someone else other then B, but 
this statistic is rather meaningless as those 97% cannot agree on 
their first place pick. So, what are they to do? They truly have no 
good option but to attempt to find a compromise and that option was 
obviously B.

Why should they not be allowed to find a candidate mutually agreeable 
to everyone since neither of two groups can agree on their top choice 
and clearly hated the others top choice?

Preventing compromise (I'm headed off the deep end here) is the 
surest way to civil war (back on land now).

So, again, I ask, why should not the candidate with the broadest 
support win when there is no clear top choice?


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== Eric Gorr ========= http://www.ericgorr.net ========= ICQ:9293199 ===
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== Insults, like violence, are the last refuge of the incompetent... ===