[EM] Kristofer: Approval vs Condorcet, 4/28/12

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

(Oops - seems that I clicked "Reply" instead of "Reply to All". Let's 
try that again.)

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It appears that your mail program has seriously mangled your reply, 
bunching up all the text into a single block. In addition, it seems to 
have sent multiple versions of your reply in the same message.

Therefore, I couldn't see all of the replies in detail, but I did pick 
out some that I will reply to.

My point about G&S implying every voting method has to hold something 
behind his back is not about FBC in particular. From what I understand, 
you're saying that FBC is much more important than the other criteria 
because US voters are so overcompromising they won't vote honestly if 
they know they could benefit Compromise by ranking him first. (Even 
though, even in Plurality with its very clear punishment of 
non-compromises, US voters sometimes go for their true favorite, e.g. 
Ross Perot in 92.) So you say that Condorcet is at a disadvantage 
because it doesn't pass FBC, and "perhaps it can win even with an arm 
behind its back". What I am saying is that if you take the view that FBC 
is just one desideratum, then all methods have to hold *something* 
behind their backs. It might be FBC, it might be clone independence, it 
might be LIIA or rank expressivity. You just can't have them all.

So if you say "perhaps Condorcet can win even with something behind it's 
back", that's not particular to Condorcet. If what you mean is "perhaps 
Condorcet can win even with FBC behind its back", then okay. That's more 
clear. It doesn't *as such* put Condorcet at a disadvantage, because you 
can't have every criterion. Perhaps Condorcet can win even though it 
doesn't have FBC? Perhaps Approal can win even though it doesn't have 
full ranking. Perhaps Asset can win even though it has an intermediate 
layer between the voters and the representatives. And so on... These are 
all disadvantages. Which are worse disadvantages is another matter, and 
I've given reasoning for why FBC failure might not be so devastating 
after all, even in the United States.