[EM] Why I think IRV isn't a serious alternative 2

[Markus Schulze]

Hallo,

James Gilmour wrote (24 Dec 2008):

> IRV has been used for public elections for many decades
> in several countries.  In contrast, despite having been
> around for about 220 years, the Condorcet voting system
> has not been used in any public elections anywhere,
> so far as I am aware.  That could perhaps change if a
> threshold were implemented to exclude the possibility
> of a weak Condorcet winner AND if a SIMPLE method were
> agreed to break Condorcet cycles.

I don't agree to your proposal to introduce a threshold
(of first preferences) to Condorcet to make Condorcet
look more like IRV. As I said in my 21 Dec 2007 mail:

http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-electorama.com/2007-December/021063.html

> I don't think that it makes much sense to try to find
> a Condorcet method that looks as much as possible like
> IRV or as much as possible like Borda. The best method
> according to IRV's underlying heuristic will always
> be IRV; the best method according to the underlying
> heuristic of the Borda method will always be the Borda
> method. It makes more sense to propose a Condorcet
> method that stands on its own legs.

Markus Schulze