<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Dec 23, 2007, at 22:52 , rob brown wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">On Dec 23, 2007 10:49 AM, Juho <<a href="mailto:juho4880@yahoo.co.uk">juho4880@yahoo.co.uk</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Now bak to the question. Majority vote may often not yield the<br>optimum outcome (from some chosen high level theoretical viewpoint)<br>but majority vote may well be considered to be the best practical<br>method for competitive two candidate elections. <br></blockquote></div><br>Yeah, well that is pretty much my opinion. With the exception that the "high level theoretical viewpoint" that supports Range (whether in 2 candidate elections or ones with 3 or more), by ignoring the competitive nature of elections, makes it a pretty non-useful theory for elections held among human beings, who have a history of being rather competitive by nature ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War</a> ).<br><br>It works pretty good for predicting how non-competive eusocial animals such as bees might want to hold elections, however. ( <a href="http://rangevoting.org/ApisMellifera.html"> http://rangevoting.org/ApisMellifera.html</a> , <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality</a> ) </blockquote><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div>Works with humans too. Three friends living in different places might agree to meet at a place that has equal distance to all three homes. Or they might select a place that minimizes the sum of the distances (maybe they will share the travelling costs). Parents could agree to watch a Disney movie with their child although they might like a war movie more themselves. In that case they are maybe seeking a solution that maximizes the worst of the three personal utilities. There are many functions that can be used in determining the optimum outcome.<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>But in politics / competitive situations rules of course tend to be different. And the election methods should be chosen accordingly.<br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Juho</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></body></html>