[Election-Methods] Simple two candidate election

[Juho]

On Dec 23, 2007, at 22:52 , rob brown wrote:

> On Dec 23, 2007 10:49 AM, Juho <juho4880 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Now bak to the question. Majority vote may often not yield the
> optimum outcome (from some chosen high level theoretical viewpoint)
> but majority vote may well be considered to be the best practical
> method for competitive two candidate elections.
>
> Yeah, well that is pretty much my opinion.  With the exception that  
> the "high level theoretical viewpoint" that supports Range (whether  
> in 2 candidate elections or ones with 3 or more), by ignoring the  
> competitive nature of elections, makes it a pretty non-useful  
> theory for elections held among human beings, who have a history of  
> being rather competitive by nature ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
> War ).
>
> It works pretty good for predicting how non-competive eusocial  
> animals such as bees might want to hold elections, however.   
> ( http://rangevoting.org/ApisMellifera.html , http:// 
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality )

Works with humans too. Three friends living in different places might  
agree to meet at a place that has equal distance to all three homes.  
Or they might select a place that minimizes the sum of the distances  
(maybe they will share the travelling costs). Parents could agree to  
watch a Disney movie with their child although they might like a war  
movie more themselves. In that case they are maybe seeking a solution  
that maximizes the worst of the three personal utilities. There are  
many functions that can be used in determining the optimum outcome.

But in politics / competitive situations rules of course tend to be  
different. And the election methods should be chosen accordingly.

Juho

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