Democracy As Public Justification: Towards a Non- Authoritarian Political Theory
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Low-Magnitude Proportional Electoral Systems
The Electoral Sweet Spot: Low-Magnitude Proportional Electoral Systems John M. Carey Dartmouth College Simon Hix London School of Economics and Political Science Can electoral rules be designed to achieve political ideals such as accurate representation of voter preferences and accountable governments? The academic literature commonly divides electoral systems into two types, majoritarian and proportional, and implies a straightforward trade-off by which having more of an ideal that a majoritarian system provides means giving up an equal measure of what proportional representation (PR) delivers. We posit that these trade-offs are better characterized as nonlinear and that one can gain most of the advantages attributed to PR, while sacrificing less of those attributed to majoritarian elections, by maintaining district magnitudes in the low to moderate range. We test this intuition against data from 609 elections in 81 countries between 1945 and 2006. Electoral systems that use low-magnitude multimember districts produce disproportionality indices almost on par with those of pure PR systems while limiting party system fragmentation and producing simpler government coalitions. An Ideal Electoral System? seek to soften the representation-accountability trade-off and achieve both objectives. For example, some electoral t is widely argued by social scientists of electoral sys- systems have small multimember districts, others have tems that there is no such thing as the ideal electoral high legal thresholds below which parties cannot win system. Although many scholars harbor strong pref- seats, while others have “parallel” mixed-member sys- I tems, where the PR seats do not compensate for dispro- erences for one type of system over another, in published work and in the teaching of electoral systems it is standard portional outcomes in the single-member seats. -
Are Condorcet and Minimax Voting Systems the Best?1
1 Are Condorcet and Minimax Voting Systems the Best?1 Richard B. Darlington Cornell University Abstract For decades, the minimax voting system was well known to experts on voting systems, but was not widely considered to be one of the best systems. But in recent years, two important experts, Nicolaus Tideman and Andrew Myers, have both recognized minimax as one of the best systems. I agree with that. This paper presents my own reasons for preferring minimax. The paper explicitly discusses about 20 systems. Comments invited. [email protected] Copyright Richard B. Darlington May be distributed free for non-commercial purposes Keywords Voting system Condorcet Minimax 1. Many thanks to Nicolaus Tideman, Andrew Myers, Sharon Weinberg, Eduardo Marchena, my wife Betsy Darlington, and my daughter Lois Darlington, all of whom contributed many valuable suggestions. 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction and summary 3 2. The variety of voting systems 4 3. Some electoral criteria violated by minimax’s competitors 6 Monotonicity 7 Strategic voting 7 Completeness 7 Simplicity 8 Ease of voting 8 Resistance to vote-splitting and spoiling 8 Straddling 8 Condorcet consistency (CC) 8 4. Dismissing eight criteria violated by minimax 9 4.1 The absolute loser, Condorcet loser, and preference inversion criteria 9 4.2 Three anti-manipulation criteria 10 4.3 SCC/IIA 11 4.4 Multiple districts 12 5. Simulation studies on voting systems 13 5.1. Why our computer simulations use spatial models of voter behavior 13 5.2 Four computer simulations 15 5.2.1 Features and purposes of the studies 15 5.2.2 Further description of the studies 16 5.2.3 Results and discussion 18 6. -
Who Gains from Apparentments Under D'hondt?
CIS Working Paper No 48, 2009 Published by the Center for Comparative and International Studies (ETH Zurich and University of Zurich) Who gains from apparentments under D’Hondt? Dr. Daniel Bochsler University of Zurich Universität Zürich Who gains from apparentments under D’Hondt? Daniel Bochsler post-doctoral research fellow Center for Comparative and International Studies Universität Zürich Seilergraben 53 CH-8001 Zürich Switzerland Centre for the Study of Imperfections in Democracies Central European University Nador utca 9 H-1051 Budapest Hungary [email protected] phone: +41 44 634 50 28 http://www.bochsler.eu Acknowledgements I am in dept to Sebastian Maier, Friedrich Pukelsheim, Peter Leutgäb, Hanspeter Kriesi, and Alex Fischer, who provided very insightful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Manuscript Who gains from apparentments under D’Hondt? Apparentments – or coalitions of several electoral lists – are a widely neglected aspect of the study of proportional electoral systems. This paper proposes a formal model that explains the benefits political parties derive from apparentments, based on their alliance strategies and relative size. In doing so, it reveals that apparentments are most beneficial for highly fractionalised political blocs. However, it also emerges that large parties stand to gain much more from apparentments than small parties do. Because of this, small parties are likely to join in apparentments with other small parties, excluding large parties where possible. These arguments are tested empirically, using a new dataset from the Swiss national parliamentary elections covering a period from 1995 to 2007. Keywords: Electoral systems; apparentments; mechanical effect; PR; D’Hondt. Apparentments, a neglected feature of electoral systems Seat allocation rules in proportional representation (PR) systems have been subject to widespread political debate, and one particularly under-analysed subject in this area is list apparentments. -
Governance in Decentralized Networks
Governance in decentralized networks Risto Karjalainen* May 21, 2020 Abstract. Effective, legitimate and transparent governance is paramount for the long-term viability of decentralized networks. If the aim is to design such a governance model, it is useful to be aware of the history of decision making paradigms and the relevant previous research. Towards such ends, this paper is a survey of different governance models, the thinking behind such models, and new tools and structures which are made possible by decentralized blockchain technology. Governance mechanisms in the wider civil society are reviewed, including structures and processes in private and non-profit governance, open-source development, and self-managed organisations. The alternative ways to aggregate preferences, resolve conflicts, and manage resources in the decentralized space are explored, including the possibility of encoding governance rules as automatically executed computer programs where humans or other entities interact via a protocol. Keywords: Blockchain technology, decentralization, decentralized autonomous organizations, distributed ledger technology, governance, peer-to-peer networks, smart contracts. 1. Introduction This paper is a survey of governance models in decentralized networks, and specifically in networks which make use of blockchain technology. There are good reasons why governance in decentralized networks is a topic of considerable interest at present. Some of these reasons are ideological. We live in an era where detailed information about private individuals is being collected and traded, in many cases without the knowledge or consent of the individuals involved. Decentralized technology is seen as a tool which can help protect people against invasions of privacy. Decentralization can also be viewed as a reaction against the overreach by state and industry. -
Majority Judgment: a New Voting Method
Paradoxes Impossbilities Majority Judgment Theory Applications of MJ Logiciels JM Experimental Evidences Conclusion Majority Judgment: A New Voting Method Rida Laraki CNRS (Lamsade, Dauphine) and University of Liverpool Colloquium J. Morgenstern, INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis December 11, 2018 (Joint work with Michel Balinski) R. Laraki Majority Judgment: A New Voting Method Paradoxes Impossbilities Majority Judgment Theory ApplicationsMethods of MJ Logiciels of Voting JM Paradoxes Experimental in Theory Evidences Paradoxes Conclusion in Practice 1 Paradoxes Methods of Voting Paradoxes in Theory Paradoxes in Practice 2 Impossbilities May’s Axioms for Two Candidates Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem 3 Majority Judgment From Practice Small Jury Large Electorate 4 Theory Domination Paradox Possibility Manipulation 5 Applications of MJ Trump 2016 Gillets Jaunes Délé´gué CM1 6 Logiciels JM 7 Experimental Evidences 8 Conclusion R. Laraki Majority Judgment: A New Voting Method First-past-the-post: also called plurality voting, used in UK, US and Canada to elect members of house of representatives. A voter designate one candidate. The most designated wins. Two-past-the-post: used in France and several countries (Finland, Austria, Russia, Portugal, Ukraine, etc) to elect the president. A voter designates one candidate. If a candidate is designated by a majority, he is elected. Otherwise, there is a run-off between the two first candidates. Paradoxes Impossbilities Majority Judgment Theory ApplicationsMethods of MJ Logiciels of Voting JM Paradoxes Experimental in Theory Evidences Paradoxes Conclusion in Practice Voting methods most used in elections R. Laraki Majority Judgment: A New Voting Method A voter designate one candidate. The most designated wins. Two-past-the-post: used in France and several countries (Finland, Austria, Russia, Portugal, Ukraine, etc) to elect the president. -
W5: Manipulability & Weighted Voting Systems
MATH 181 D2: A MATHEMATICAL WORLD W5: Manipulability & Weighted Voting Systems Objectives: SWBAT Manipulate a given election to produce the desired winner under any manipulable voting system. r Recognize which voting systems are manipulable. r Describe a weighted voting system using the quota and the voting weights r Determine which players are dictators or dummy voters r Recall Arrow's Impossibility Theorem: With three or more candidates and any number of voters, there does not exist{and there never will exist{a voting system that always produces a winner, satisfies the Pareto condition and IIA, and is not a dictatorship. So how badly do the suggested voting systems do? We are going to start by looking more closely at the manipulability of the system. Group Activity: Worksheet W5.1 Def: A voting system is said to be manipulable if there exist two sequences of preference list ballot and a voter (call the voter Jane) such that 1. Neither election results in a tie. 2. The only ballot change is by Jane. 3. Jane prefers{assuming that her ballot in the first election represents her true preferences{the outcome of the second election to that of the first election. We see this illustrated in the example from the worksheet. Note: Neither majority rule, in the case of two candidates, nor Condorcet's method, in the case of three or more candidates are manipulable. What about the Borda Count? We saw earlier that with four candidates and 2 voters it was manipulable, what about with 3 candidates? Group Activity: Worksheet W5.2 1 Example: Suppose the candidates are A; B, and C, and that you prefer A to B, but B is the election winner using the Borda count. -
Majority Judgment Vs. Majority Rule ∗
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Liverpool Repository Majority Judgment vs. Majority Rule ∗ Michel Balinski CNRS, CREST, Ecole´ Polytechnique, France, [email protected] and Rida Laraki* CNRS, University of Paris Dauphine-PSL, France, [email protected] and University of Liverpool, United Kingdom June 6, 2019 Abstract The validity of majority rule in an election with but two candidates|and so also of Condorcet consistency| is challenged. Axioms based on evaluating candidates|paralleling those of K. O. May characterizing ma- jority rule for two candidates based on comparing candidates|lead to another method, majority judgment, that is unique in agreeing with the majority rule on pairs of \polarized" candidates. It is a practical method that accommodates any number of candidates, avoids both the Condorcet and Arrow paradoxes, and best resists strategic manipulation. Key words: majority, measuring, ranking, electing, Condorcet consistency, domination paradox, tyranny of majority, intensity problem, majority-gauge, strategy-proofness, polarization. 1 Introduction Elections measure. Voters express themselves, a rule amalgamates them, the candidates' scores|measures of support|determine their order of finish, and the winner. Traditional methods ask voters to express themselves by comparing them: • ticking one candidate at most (majority rule, first-past-the-post) or several candidates (approval voting), candidates' total ticks ranking them; • rank-ordering the candidates (Borda rule, alternative vote or preferential voting, Llull's rule, Dasgupta- Maskin method, . ), differently derived numerical scores ranking them. However, no traditional method measures the support of one candidate.1 Instead, the theory of voting (or of social choice) elevates to a basic distinguishing axiom the faith that in an election between two candidates majority rule is the only proper rule. -
Mapping and Responding to the Rising Culture and Politics of Fear in the European Union…”
“ Mapping and responding to the rising culture and politics of fear in the European Union…” NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF? Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events. We have spent over 20 years at the centre of the policy debate, with an overarching mission to bring politics closer to people. Demos has always been interested in power: how it works, and how to distribute it more equally throughout society. We believe in trusting people with decisions about their own lives and solving problems from the bottom-up. We pride ourselves on working together with the people who are the focus of our research. Alongside quantitative research, Demos pioneers new forms of deliberative work, from citizens’ juries and ethnography to ground-breaking social media analysis. Demos is an independent, educational charity, registered in England and Wales (Charity Registration no. 1042046). Find out more at www.demos.co.uk First published in 2017 © Demos. Some rights reserved Unit 1, Lloyds Wharf, 2–3 Mill Street London, SE1 2BD, UK ISBN 978–1–911192–07–7 Series design by Modern Activity Typeset by Soapbox Set in Gotham Rounded and Baskerville 10 NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF? Open access. Some rights reserved. As the publisher of this work, Demos wants to encourage the circulation of our work as widely as possible while retaining the copyright. We therefore have an open access policy which enables anyone to access our content online without charge. Anyone can download, save, perform or distribute this work in any format, including translation, without written permission. -
Democracy Without Elections Mainz
Democracy without Elections: Is electoral accountability essential for democracy? Felix Gerlsbeck [email protected] Paper prepared for the workshop “Democratic Anxiety. Democratic Resilience.” Mainz, 15-17 June 2017 DRAFT VERSION, PLEASE DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHOR’S PERMISSION 1. Introduction The idea of choosing political decision-makers by sortition, that is, choosing them randomly from a pool of the entire population or from some qualified subset, through some form of lottery or other randomizing procedure, is familiar to democrats at least since ancient Athens. Apart from the selection of trial juries, however, sortition has all but disappeared from official decision-making procedures within contemporary democratic systems, and free, equal, and regular election through voting by the entire qualified population of candidates who put themselves forward for political office, has taken its place. Nevertheless, there has been renewed interest in the idea of reviving sortition-based elements within modern democratic systems over the last years: a number of democratic theorists see great promise in complementing elected decision-making institutions with those selected randomly. These proposals variously go under the names mini-publics, citizen juries, citizen assemblies, lottocracy, enfranchisement lottery, and even Machiavellian Democracy.1 The roots of this practice go back to ancient Athens. During the 5th century Athenian democracy, the equivalent of the parliamentary body tasked with deliberating 1 See for instance, Guerrero 2014; Fishkin 2009; Warren & Gastil 2015; Ryan & Smith 2014; Saunders 2012; López-Guerra 2014; López-Guerra 2011; McCormick 2011. 1 and drafting policy proposals, the boule, was chosen by lot from the citizens of Athens through a complex system of randomization. -
Election by Majority Judgment: Experimental Evidence
Chapter 2 Election by Majority Judgment: Experimental Evidence Michel Balinski and Rida Laraki Introduction Throughout the world, the choice of one from among a set of candidates is accomplished by elections. Elections are mechanisms for amalgamating the wishes of individuals into a decision of society. Many have been proposed and used. Most rely on the idea that voters compare candidates – one is better than another – so have lists of “preferences” in their minds. These include first-past-the-post (in at least two avatars), Condorcet’s method (1785), Borda’s method (1784) (and similar methods that assign scores to places in the lists of preferences and then add them), convolutions of Condorcet’s and/or Borda’s, the single transferable vote (also in at least two versions), and approval voting (in one interpretation). Electoral mechanisms are also used in a host of other circumstances where win- ners and orders-of-finish must be determined by a jury of judges, including figure skaters, divers, gymnasts, pianists, and wines. Invariably, as the great mathemati- cian Laplace (1820) was the first to propose two centuries ago they asked voters (or judges) not to compare but to evaluate the competitors by assigning points from some range, points expressing an absolute measure of the competitors’ mer- its. Laplace suggested the range Œ0; R for some arbitrary positive real number R, whereas practical systems usually fix R at some positive integer. These mechanisms rank the candidates according to the sums or the averages of their points1 (some- times after dropping highest and lowest scores). They have been emulated in various schemes proposed for voting with ranges taken to be integers in Œ0; 100, Œ0; 5, Œ0; 2, or Œ0; 1 (the last approval voting). -
And the Loser Is... Plurality Voting Jean-François Laslier
And the loser is... Plurality Voting Jean-François Laslier To cite this version: Jean-François Laslier. And the loser is... Plurality Voting. 2011. hal-00609810 HAL Id: hal-00609810 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00609810 Preprint submitted on 20 Jul 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE AND THE LOSER IS... PLURALITY VOTING Jean-François LASLIER Cahier n° 2011-13 DEPARTEMENT D'ECONOMIE Route de Saclay 91128 PALAISEAU CEDEX (33) 1 69333033 http://www.economie.polytechnique.edu/ mailto:[email protected] And the loser is... Plurality Voting Jean-Franc¸ois Laslier Abstract This paper reports on a vote for choosing the best voting rules that was organized among the participants of the Voting Procedures workshop in July, 2010. Among 18 voting rules, Approval Voting won the contest, and Plurality Voting re- ceived no support at all. 1 Introduction Experts have different opinions as to which is the best voting procedure. The Lever- hulme Trust sponsored 2010 Voting Power in Practice workshop, held at the Chateau du Baffy, Normandy, from 30 July to 2 August 2010, was organized for the purpose of discussing this matter. -
The Many Faces of Strategic Voting
Revised Pages The Many Faces of Strategic Voting Strategic voting is classically defined as voting for one’s second pre- ferred option to prevent one’s least preferred option from winning when one’s first preference has no chance. Voters want their votes to be effective, and casting a ballot that will have no influence on an election is undesirable. Thus, some voters cast strategic ballots when they decide that doing so is useful. This edited volume includes case studies of strategic voting behavior in Israel, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, and the United Kingdom, providing a conceptual framework for understanding strategic voting behavior in all types of electoral systems. The classic definition explicitly considers strategic voting in a single race with at least three candidates and a single winner. This situation is more com- mon in electoral systems that have single- member districts that employ plurality or majoritarian electoral rules and have multiparty systems. Indeed, much of the literature on strategic voting to date has considered elections in Canada and the United Kingdom. This book contributes to a more general understanding of strategic voting behavior by tak- ing into account a wide variety of institutional contexts, such as single transferable vote rules, proportional representation, two- round elec- tions, and mixed electoral systems. Laura B. Stephenson is Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. John Aldrich is Pfizer- Pratt University Professor of Political Science at Duke University. André Blais is Professor of Political Science at the Université de Montréal. Revised Pages Revised Pages THE MANY FACES OF STRATEGIC VOTING Tactical Behavior in Electoral Systems Around the World Edited by Laura B.