[EM] using welfare functions in election methods

[Raphael Ryan]

Stephen Turner <smturner0 at yahoo.es> wrote:

>Nice to see a discussion of welfare in this context.
>Can we confirm that "welfare" is a synonym for
>"utility"?

There seems to be a difference in how the sums are occuring.  This welfare function applies a negative utility to people having wealth that is not average.

>A starting model would be: given a voting system which
>is sufficiently expressive (perhaps a range system),
>assume that everyone just votes their welfare
>directly, and see where that gets us.  [Of course this
>wouldn´t do in practice.]

The trick is making it so that there is no advantage to tactical voting.

What about the following

Each voter
- submits a computer program or selects one of the off the shelf ones
- Everyone submits a range voting ballot (or whatever their program accepts)

A computer program is run for each voter and they negotiate to try and get the best outcome according to the voter's stated preference.  There would need to be a time limit and the programs could change their vote at any time (until the last "round")

There is still the problem of how the programs get to vote.  This probably gets us back where we started based on what is desirable in the system.

Some possibilities:

Electing a legislature (proportionality desired)

A candidate is elected if they meet the Droop quota of votes

Electing a cabinet (centerist control desired)

The cabinet configuration that has the most votes is selected

Electing a president (centerist desired)

Same as a cabinet

Direct Democracy

A law is passed if it receives greater than 50% of the vote
(this would lead to the tyrany of majority)

Direct Democracy (market version)

Each program is allocated X votes per year

A law is passed if it receives more votes in favour than against.  However, when it is passed, the votes (both for/against) are consumed.  (the against votes would need to be consumed less though).

This means that programs would be careful what to bid on and minority programs would have a chance of getting some laws passed.

----------------------------

Also, after the election, the programs could be graded based on how well they did for their voters.

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