[EM] RWE, Participation

[Eric Gorr]

At 5:03 PM +0200 9/10/03, Kevin Venzke wrote:
>I also value Participation highly, but it seems extremely difficult to meet.
>I wonder if anyone has put thought into the circumstances where it should be
>permissible to fail Participation.
>
>For instance, the 100 voters above could conceivably have used strategy
>(in Bucklin or RWE) to avoid giving the election to D...  Particularly
>if they think C is the best compromise, which he is.
>
>But if you can hurt your interests by voting, in cases where it would be
>impossible for you to foresee, that seems unacceptable.

If finding the option most acceptable to the group is of any 
importance to a voter, they cannot harm their own interests. A kind 
of person for whom this would not be important would be a dictator, 
someone involved in the overthrow of the government, etc...or 
basically anyone else who is unwilling to submit to the preference of 
the group as a whole.

As such, any method which is capable of finding the group preference 
would be one in which it is acceptable to fail Participation.