[EM] Arrow's axioms & an alternative to elections

[Ernest Prabhakar]

On Mar 10, 2004, at 4:41 PM, Philippe Errembault wrote:
>> The biggest problem I see is, who gets to define the rules for what
>> gets decided at which level?  If the authority for that is too
>> dispersed, you get a logjam.  If too centralized, you risk devaluing
>> certain levels which would seemingly defeat the whole purpose of the
>> arrangement.
>
> Yes, ok. that can be a problem. I suggest the following strategy :
> - Decision are taken a the top level,
> - if citizen disagree with a decion, they can change their 
> representaion at any time
> - If representatives think they are not sure about a decision, then 
> they report the qusetion to the n-1 level.

Hmm, that sounds like a recipe for chaotic behavior - if there's too 
many links, potentially one small change can disrupt things at any 
time.  Of course, it might be a fun and worthwhile computer simulation 
to see what constraints would be necessary to guarantee some measure of 
stability.

-- Ernie P.