[EM] Markus reply

[Markus Schulze]

Dear Mike,

I wrote (27 Feb 2005):
> So you say that it is impossible to define WDSC, SDSC,
> and FBC in terms of cast preferences?

You wrote (27 Feb 2005):
> Either it's impossible, or else no one has yet succeeded.
> Does it matter which it is?

Yes, it does matter. Election methods are defined on
_cast_ preferences and not on _sincere_ preferences.
Therefore, whether a given election method passes a
given criterion must depend only on how this method
handles _cast_ preferences. Therefore, a criterion
can be well defined only when it can be defined
without mentioning _sincere_ preferences.

You wrote (27 Feb 2005):
> In a sense a method that gives the same result is the
> same method, but in another sense it can be said to
> not be the same method, if it's a completely different
> implementation. In any case, however, when I said that
> SSD is equivalent to Schulze's method, that statement
> wasn't entirely correct.

Nope. It is not a "completely different implementation".
See e.g.:
http://lists.electorama.com/htdig.cgi/election-methods-electorama.com/1998-August/001958.html
http://lists.electorama.com/htdig.cgi/election-methods-electorama.com/1998-November/002771.html

Markus Schulze