Dear Election Methods list,
On May 26, 2004, at 11:39 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I was prodded to be curious about the question of "Who are the people on
the EM list?"
An excellent question, Brian. Knowing more about each other might also help lubricate the sometimes touchy intellectual disputes...
Are we academics? Hobbyists? Politicians?
The trend so far seems to be well-educated hobbyists/academics. I certainly fit that mold:
I consider myself a philosophical activist. I have a Ph.D. in particle physics (hi Alex :-), but for the last seven years have worked as Product Marketing Manager in Silicon Valley. I've become engaged in a rather quixotic quest to *understand* business the same way we (more or less) understand science and the natural world. This ultimately led to a philosophical position I called Radical Centrism < http://RadicalCentrism.org/manifesto.html >, which Googled me in with Radical Centrist politics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_centrist_politics>.
I first heard about IRV in a book from the New American Foundation entitled The Radical Center <http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=book_Rev&pubID=1011>. I didn't think much about it at the time, but later proposed IRV as a solution to the spoiler effect during the 135-candidate California recall <http://radicalcentrism.org/platform_ca2003.html>. A math-oriented friend of mine suggested I look at Condorcet methods instead, and pointed me to the election-methods site. I was a quick convert, and after corresponding with Mike O. decided to join this list. My pet variant is Maximum Majority Voting <http://radicalcentrism.org/majority_voting.html> (love that name :-), inspired by Steve Eppley's MAM.
I am probably nearly unique on this list in coming from a conservative/Republican background, which I've only partly overcome, and I don't really mind the two-party system per se (remember, I'm a philosophical, not political, activist). My perspective on voting systems is driven my by views on epistemology and information theory: I believe that leaders are most effective when they are incented to understand and respond to the views of multiple communities besides their own, and that the optimal voting system is one which maximizes the amount of information to [potential] politicians about what the entire community believes and wants.
That's probably more than you wanted to know, but I'm still enough of a physicist that I can't resist an opportunity to lecture. :-)
-- Ernie P. a.k.a "Dr. Ernie"
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Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D. <DrErnie at RadicalCentrism.org>
RadicalCentrism.org is an anti-partisan think tank near Sacramento, California, dedicated to developing and promoting the ideals of Reality, Character, Community and Humility as expressed in our Radical Centrist Manifesto: Ground Rules of Civil Society <http://RadicalCentrism.org/manifesto.html>
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