[EM] Re: DMC/RAV vs. Approval

[James Green-Armytage]

Bart, you wrote:
>If you assume that each candidate prefers himself to any other 
>candidate, and that candidates are eligible voters, then how would any 
>method fail Pareto in an actual election?

	Yes. If you assume that every candidate is an eligible voter for their
own race, and that every candidate is their own first choice for the
office, then the mere existence of a Pareto-dominated candidate is
impossible.
	I don't seriously believe that a Pareto-dominated candidate would ever
win an actual public election. Does that mean that Pareto is not useful as
a voting systems criterion? That's a matter of opinion. At the least,
Pareto failure is an embarrassment to approval. Whether it has any
practical significance in and of itself, I don't know.

my best,
James