[EM] A new simulation

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax]

At 07:45 AM 12/6/2008, Jobst Heitzig wrote:
>Hi Adb ul-Rahman,
>
>still, Asset Voting is majoritarian and therefore not democratic. 
>The reason why we have been studying methods with chance components 
>(that is, non-deterministic methods) is that we wanted to find a 
>democratic method, i.e. one that does not give any subset of the 
>voters (no matter how many they are) total decision power.
>
>Of course, Asset Voting can easily be modified to achieve this: 
>After the inter-candidate negotiations, not Plurality but Random 
>Ballot is used for the final decision.

I understand the approach. But your final comment shows that the 
"majoritarian, not demoratic" argument isn't true. You've added a 
different element, that's all.

Alcoholics Anonymous, when repeated balloting does not find a 
two-thirds majority, to elect Conference delegates from regions, uses 
random choice among the top two remaining to produce a rough 
proportional representation.

But something you've missed about Asset is that when used for 
multiwinner, it produces, effectively, full representation. Everyone 
wins. Using random choice for representation is totally silly.

What you would want is for decisions in the resulting assembly to be 
randomized.

And, I'll caution, this is probably pie in the sky! Would you use it 
for your personal decisions? Would this optimize overall success?

I've simply noted that Asset does work single-winner. Naturally, with 
single winner, there are losers, so your "majoritarian" arguments 
start to apply. Single-winner elections for representation, though, 
are inherently flawed, and single winner elections for officers for 
fixed terms are, well, in a word, stupid. Elect officers to serve at 
will. No business elects officers for fixed terms! (But they do elect 
board members, another story. If it were practical -- i.e., if they 
knew how to use Asset! -- they would not do it. In Asset, the 
electors serve for fixed terms, i.e., till the next election. But 
they are chosen, not elected.)