[EM] grab bag of replies

[Warren Smith]

To Suter:
I agree we cannot *really* tell if Condorcet would lead to 2-party domination until we try
it in several coutnries for 100 years.  But short of that we have to try to reason,
and I consider the case in
   http://math.temple.edu/~wds/crv/IncentToExagg.html
   http://math.temple.edu/~wds/crv/CondStratPf
to be reasonably convincing.  Whether math & logic alone can tell us
this varies... some people still seem unconvinced...  personally I think I would
have been able to deduce 2-party dominance from plurality rules even without knowing
any of the evidence, purely from thinking, but maybe you would disagree.  For
evidence about Duverger law see
   http://math.temple.edu/~wds/crv/Duverger.html
and if anybody wants to supply me with some more datapoints (e.g. from 2002-2005 elections)
then I can add them to the picture there.

To Jobst Heitzig:
Re the DH3 pathology, I tried to answer your question by adding a paragraph to
   http://math.temple.edu/~wds/crv/DH3.html

Re your "Weinstein" idea that you would vote for candidates above the median with
approval voting, since you do not believe in utility, I ask you to consider
  A.  Josef Stalin
  B.  Adolf Hitler
  C.  Genghis Khan
  D.  Jacques Chirac
where (say) A<B<C<D in your opinion.
I suggest to you that utility does exist and does matter, and if
every approval voter acted like you instead of like me, tremendous expected
harm to humanity would then result.  In particular you and I would plausibly go to an
early grave.   Utility might seem real to us at that point.

Re your DFC wiki page, I hate it.  The DFC system may be good, but I hate the
way you explained it.   I am not sure what I think of DFC but I think any system
involving such a large component of chance would be unacceptable in practice.
I also think I want there to be a concise clear and unambiguous description of DFC,
and that wiki isn't it.




I think that DFC or something lie it may be a good idea in principle
(ignoring how practically winnable it would be) but I would need to think more
before adopting any particular choice of method.

wds