[EM] Order-reversal correction

MIKE OSSIPOFF nkklrp at hotmail.com
Tue Mar 29 18:25:09 PST 2005


Chris described a kind of voting and asked me...what I would call it.

I said "offensive order-reversal", but that was a hasty incorrect answer, 
based on how I've defined offensive strategy.

I've defined offensive strategy as strategy intended to take victory from a 
CW or to elect someone in violation of majority rule. So then the voting 
that Chris described might or might not be offensive order-reversal, by that 
definition.

But, if it isn't, I'd call it order-reversal anyway.

If I don't have a more detailed name for it, that's because it isn't 
something that I talk about. Remember the eskimos with 1000 words for 
different kinds of snow? (even if that story isn't true)

But this does suggest that maybe my definition of offensive strategy might 
be overly narrow. Maybe offensive strategy should be defined more broadly 
than defensive strategy. That's something to consider for possible future 
changes in that definition.

If you vote someone lower, reversing a preference to do so, in order to help 
someone you like more, that certainly has an offensive character.

I define defensive strategy as narrowly as I do because it doesn't make much 
sense to call strategy defensive unless there's something significant to 
defend. I might or might not later adopt a broader definition of offensive 
strategy.

Anyway, so far, at this time, I don't call the strategy that Chris described 
anything other than order-reversal, if it involves reversing a preference. I 
don't call it anything simply because it isn't something that I talk about, 
because it isn't part of an issue that is important to me, as Chris 
described it.

How about this as a possible future definition for offensive strategy?: 
Strategy intended to improve your outcome, in a way that could create a 
defensive strategy need for someone else.

Just speculating about a possible future definition change.

Mike Ossipoff

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/




More information about the Election-Methods mailing list