[EM] Meta-criteria 1 of 9: values (utility, expressiveness, legitimacy, and ease) and heuristics (simplicity, flexibility, and fairness/honesty)

[Jameson Quinn]

What makes a voting system good? We election-methods geeks love to define
lots criteria to distinguish different methods. But what can be done when
the criteria become almost as plentiful as the voting systems they were
designed to help distinguish? We need to find some meta-criteria, so that
arguing about relative importance of various criteria isn't simply a matter
of taste. And the obvious place to start is with something axiomatic: the
underlying values.

Why would we say that criterion X is more important than criterion Y? Is
that argument decidable - do two people mean the same thing when they say
that? I'd say that when people talk about "importance", they are referring
to underlying values; and that there is a finite list of such values. If
you're referring to the same value, then yes, there is probably a "correct"
answer as to which criterion is more important, and thus, which system is
better. But, while the values often agree, sometimes they pull you in
opposite directions. By the end of this  email, I'll have some novel ideas
on how to combine or compromise those conflicting tugs.

What are the basic underlying values? I've given my attempt at a list in the
title of the email: utility (that is, the social utility of the outcome);
expressiveness; legitimacy; and ease. There are also a few overlapping
heuristics which, while not axiomatic values in themselves, are often used
and can help provide a compass to find the values; among these are
simplicity, flexibility, and fairness/honesty.

Allow me to discuss each of these in turn. To facilitate discussion in
separate threads, I'm going to split this up into 9 emails - this one, one
for each factor, and one concluding message. Most of the messages are simply
summarizing general knowledge in terms of this terminology; most of the
original contributions of this series will come in sections 6-simplicity,
where I'll give a new perspective on the Schulze method; 8-fairness, where
I'll name and consider different forms of strategy; and 9-conclusion, where
I'll propose a way to reconcile the tension between utility and
expressiveness.
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