[EM] Re: serious strategy problem in Condorcet, but not in IRV?

[Dgamble997 at aol.com]

Eric Gorr wrote in part:

"Considering that all elections methods can be manipulated in some 
form or another, what good is it to remind us that society can break 
down and make the election method irrelevant by subverting the 
process?"

I (quite surprisingly) find myself agreeing with the first half of this 
sentence. All election methods are vulnerable to manipulation. However we shouldn't 
just sweep any system's flaws under the carpet and pretend they don't exist. 
Eric I'm sure wouldn't allow IRV's "flaws" to be swept under the carpet and 
ignored.

My personal experience of attempting to defeat Britain's former Conservative 
government by encouraging tactical voting ( in order to defeat the 
Conservative you vote for the candidate best placed to defeat him/her) is that a large 
minority of people have a strong desire to vote sincerely and under plurality 
will vote for a candidate they know has little chance of victory and thereby 
allow the election of a candidate they don't particularly like as a result. 

In real elections the kind of tactics James G-A is describing are unlikely 
(IMHO) to happen on a significant enough scale to effect the results. There are 
( in my minority opinion) other more serious problems with Condorcet.

One final thought, if a flaw exists in an electoral system I do not consider 
it illegitimate to exploit that flaw. If you really want an effective way to 
prevent the manipulation of elections you could do what they do in France where 
the publication of opinion polls is banned in the two weeks? ( I'm not 
certain of the actual  time period) before an election.

David Gamble 




    
    

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