[EM] Composite methods (Re: Eric Maskin promotes the Black method)

[robert bristow-johnson]

i was looking for Kristofer's posts to EM and came across this, i may  
have missed it:

On Jun 22, 2011, at 5:30 AM, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:

> robert bristow-johnson wrote:
>> On Jun 21, 2011, at 7:56 AM, Markus Schulze wrote:
>>> Hallo,
>>>
>>> Eric Maskin, a Nobel laureate, is currently very
>>> active in promoting the Black method.
>
>> and we've all been groping for a name for this primary voting  
>> criteria that is not this non-American, Frenchie, probably sorta  
>> pinko-socialist secular humanist "intellectual" (did i mention  
>> *not* American?) whose heresy is leading us away from the One True  
>> Faith of the Single Affirmative Vote.  we have sects in the One  
>> True Faith, some of us believe in the sanctity of the Two Party  
>> System: "if yer ain't fer us, you agin' us.  and pass da  
>> ammunition, Ma."
>
> I've mentioned it before, but I think Condorcet enjoys an additional  
> advantage here. Say there's a CW and he is not elected. Then that  
> means a majority prefers the CW to the candidate who was elected,  
> and if that majority is annoyed enough, it could try to repeal the  
> voting method in question. However, if the method always elects the  
> CW, any attempt to do so must face a majority who did prefer that CW  
> to all the other candidates, and if that majority feels the  
> candidate is good enough, they can block the repeal by virtue of  
> being a majority.
>

it's curious to me, Kristofer, that this is a theorem that states that  
Condorcet-compliant will eventually, naturally become the norm because  
eventually the majority will be well aware of their status (as the  
majority) and know their loss, be outraged, and change the system to  
something different.  until Condorcet is landed on, there will always  
be the probabilistic pressure to change to something different.

i dunno if i would be as optimistic as that.  i don't think that  
people think about it.

--

r b-j                  rbj at audioimagination.com

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."