[EM] SciAm article

[Forest Simmons]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, Steve Eppley wrote:

> Forest Simmons wrote:
>
> -snip-
>
> > They also express the believe that the completion method
> > doesn't matter too much because according to a theorem
> > of Black, Condorcet cycles should be rare in political
> > elections.
>
> If that's Black's "median voter" theorem, it assumes the
> candidates take positions on a 1-dimensional spectrum.  A
> rather bold and shaky assumption, in my opinion.

They do quote this one dimensional spectrum condition, but also allude to
another theorem of Black (as well as other theorems) that gives other
conditions for the existence of a CW.  For example, they claim that if the
leading contenders are controversial enough to be ranked mostly at the
extremes of the ballots, then there will be a CW, no matter the dimension
of the issue space.

Forest