Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Kristofer Munsterhjelm

Paul Kislanko wrote:

This still makes no sense to me, since C has no more a majority in case 2
than it had in case 1.

If mutual majority selects (A B) in case 1 and (A B C) in case 2, it makes
no sense at all and should never be mentioned again. 


Mutual majority can still be useful. Let's make an analogy to Condorcet. 
The Condorcet criterion elects the CW if there is one. In other words, 
if there is a CW and that CW is candidate X, then the set from which 
Condorcet methods elect is { X }. If there is no CW, and the candidates 
for election are {A B C ... X }, then the set from which Condorcet 
methods elect is {A B C ... X }.


Thus, Condorcet is useful when there is indeed a CW, but does nothing 
when there isn't.


So it is with mutual majority as well. When there's a set that a 
majority ranks above all the others, then a method that passes mutual 
majority must elect from that set. When there is no such set, the method 
is free to pick any candidate yet still pass mutual majority.


In that light, mutual majority seems very reasonable indeed: if there is 
a set so that a majority prefers that set to all others outside the set, 
then a candidate within that set should be elected. It's simply 
majority transported to sets.


(And on another note, sorry for not mailing you this directly as well, 
Paul, but airmail.net seems to think my ISP is a dirty spammer.)


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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Paul Kislanko
This is the post that confused me, and got everbody yelling at me because I
was confused. I call attention to theis bit:
26 AB
25 BA
49 C

Mutual Majority elects {A,B}

Now add 5 A bullet votes:

26 AB
25 BA
49 C
5 A

Now Mutual Majority elects {A,B,C}.
--

My original question was how does that make sense? The only answers have
been addressed to me, and haven't addressed the question. The assertion that
mutual majority elects was made by Kevin Venzke, so I guess my question
directed to him.
 

-Original Message-
From: election-methods-boun...@lists.electorama.com
[mailto:election-methods-boun...@lists.electorama.com] On Behalf Of Kevin
Venzke
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:25 PM
To: election-meth...@electorama.com
Subject: Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

Hi Chris,

--- En date de : Sam 10.1.09, Chris Benham cbenha...@yahoo.com.au a
écrit :
 De: Chris Benham cbenha...@yahoo.com.au
 Objet: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?
 À: EM election-methods@lists.electorama.com, Kevin Venzke
step...@yahoo.fr
 Cc: Markus Schulze markus.schu...@alumni.tu-berlin.de
 Date: Samedi 10 Janvier 2009, 0h31
 Kevin,
 
 You wrote (9 Jan 2009):
 
 Well, with Mutual Majority, when X may
 win, it's possible that by
 adding bullet votes for X, then every other candidate
 becomes able to
 win.
 
 No it isn't. (Can you give an example?) 

26 AB
25 BA
49 C

Mutual Majority elects {A,B}

Now add 5 A bullet votes:

26 AB
25 BA
49 C
5 A

Now Mutual Majority elects {A,B,C}.

By the way, it's very easy to define a single-winner method that
satisfies Mutual Majority and which elects A in the first scenario and
C in the second.

 Is there any way to explain, why it isn't
 completely absurd, that adding
 bullet votes for X should cause other candidates to become
 eligible to 
 win?
 
 No.

Ok.

 Why is mono-add-plump important?
 
 Because as an election method algorithm that fails it
 simply can't have any
 credibility as a quasi-intelligent device (which is what it
 is supposed to be)
 and because satisfying it should be (and is) very cheap.

I feel that cheapness isn't relevant to whether a criterion is important,
and certainly not to whether failing it is absurd. I save the term 
absurd for ideas that are bad regardless of what else is available.

Regarding your first reason: Why is it acceptable to fail mono-add-top
or Participation, but not acceptable to fail mono-add-plump? I guess
that you based this distinction almost entirely on the relative cheapness
of the criteria.

 If we view CDTT somehow as an election method, then
 when it fails
 mono-add-plump, the bullet votes for X are not simply
 strengthening
 X, they are also *weakening* some pairwise victory of Y
 over Z, which X
 had relied upon in order to have a majority beatpath to
 Z.
 
 That just testifies to the absurdity of an algorithm
 specifically putting some
 special significance on majority beatpaths
 versus other beatpaths.

You're saying it's absurd, but what is absurd about it? The only reason
X is allowed to win in the first place is due to a decisive YZ win
providing a path from X to Z. Why is it clear that X should be entitled 
to remain a possible winner irrespective of the status of this win?

I agree it would be better if this were possible, but I don't see anything
essential about it.

 Of course, you can always use the mechanics of the
 method to explain why
 something has happened. But it seems to me that the bullet
 voters aren't
 purely strengthening X, they are also weakening
 Y and thereby also X.
 
 This contention that bullet voters for X aren't
 purely strengthening X but are
 in some way also weakening X is completely
 absurd.

The strengthening and weakening are in two different senses. The
strengthening is in terms of bullet votes. The weakening is in terms
of losing a majority beatpath to a candidate that the voters decisively
prefer.

 This is an oddity inherent to beatpaths, really
 
 I think only to beatpaths that measure defeat
 strengths in a silly way.

I don't agree. Just because the use of beatpaths doesn't naturally
cause problems with mono-add-plump, doesn't mean there aren't other
oddities. Why should a candidate's ability to win, ever depend on the
strength of a contest between two other candidates?

 But I contend that here in my situation 2
 election Beatpath GMC does exclude
 the clearly strongest candidate C. 
  
 You're attacking a lot more than just beatpath
 GMC with this scenario.
 Excluding C is required by SFC (the 51 B voters are
 basically assured
 LNHarm when voting for C, since B might be the sincere CW)
 and also
 basically any WV method.
 
 Yes, you catch on quick.

It's just a bit puzzling that this thread is phrased as an attack on
beatpath GMC, if the bottom line is that beatpath GMC isn't compatible
with the positional criterion.

 In other words the CDTT set can fail to include the
 candidate that on overwhelming 
 common-sense (mostly 

Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Juho Laatu
--- On Sun, 11/1/09, Paul Kislanko kisla...@airmail.net wrote:

 Arrr. Explain, someone, anyone, how MM can change an (A
 B) to an (A B C)
 possible winner set by adding voters for A.

One way to say this is that since in the
first example there was a set of voters
(26 AB, 25 BA) that had a mutual majority
opinion on candidate set {A, B} the winner
must come from this set. In the second
example there is no such majority set of
voters that would prefer some set of
candidates, so the criterion says nothing.

There is thus no requirement not to allow
C to win. There is also no requirement to
allow C to win.

Note also that set {A, B, C} refers to all
candidates, i.e. {A, B, C, D, ... ,Z} (if
there are more candidates than the three
mentioned three).

There are methods that meet mutual majority
and are not very good. A method that would
elect a random candidate from the set of all
candidates but limiting the choice using the
mutual majority criterion would be problematic
in in the way you mention. Bullet votes would
add C to the set of potential winners.

Typically methods that meet mutual majority
have however also other rules (or algorithm)
that would elect the most sensible candidate
from the sets {A, B} and {A, B, C}. Mutual
majority could be just one of the criteria
that the method meets.

The behaviour of the methods is also often
smooth in the sense that if there is almost
mutual majority then the method elects a
candidate that is (almost) in the mutual
majority candidate set. So, even if some
criterion may not apply in some set of votes
the criterion may still roughly point out the
direction where the winner will be found.

 26 AB
 25 BA
 49 C
 
 Mutual Majority elects {A,B}
 
 Now add 5 A bullet votes:
 
 26 AB
 25 BA
 49 C
 5 A
 
 Now Mutual Majority elects {A,B,C}.

Here words Now Mutual Majority elects
{A,B,C} are a bit confusing since mutual
majority doesn't set any requirements on
who should be elected (nor elect anyone).
There also seems to be a hidden assumption
that there are no other candidates than A,
B and C. Maybe it would be clearer to just
say that any candidate can be elected (A,
B, C or any other).

Juho


P.S. Also my direct mail to you was returned
back to me (and this happened also with
Kristofer Munsterhjelm some time ago).



 -Original Message-
 From: election-methods-boun...@lists.electorama.com
 [mailto:election-methods-boun...@lists.electorama.com] On
 Behalf Of
 Kristofer Munsterhjelm
 Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 2:23 AM
 To: election-meth...@electorama.com
 Cc: 'Markus Schulze'
 Subject: Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a
 mistaken standard?
 
 Paul Kislanko wrote:
  This still makes no sense to me, since C has no more a
 majority in case 2
  than it had in case 1.
  
  If mutual majority selects (A B) in case 1 and (A B C)
 in case 2, it makes
  no sense at all and should never be mentioned again. 
 
 Mutual majority can still be useful. Let's make an
 analogy to Condorcet. 
 The Condorcet criterion elects the CW if there is one. In
 other words, 
 if there is a CW and that CW is candidate X, then the set
 from which 
 Condorcet methods elect is { X }. If there is no CW, and
 the candidates 
 for election are {A B C ... X }, then the set from which
 Condorcet 
 methods elect is {A B C ... X }.
 
 Thus, Condorcet is useful when there is indeed a CW, but
 does nothing 
 when there isn't.
 
 So it is with mutual majority as well. When there's a
 set that a 
 majority ranks above all the others, then a method that
 passes mutual 
 majority must elect from that set. When there is no such
 set, the method 
 is free to pick any candidate yet still pass mutual
 majority.
 
 In that light, mutual majority seems very reasonable
 indeed: if there is 
 a set so that a majority prefers that set to all others
 outside the set, 
 then a candidate within that set should be elected.
 It's simply 
 majority transported to sets.
 
 (And on another note, sorry for not mailing you this
 directly as well, 
 Paul, but airmail.net seems to think my ISP is a dirty
 spammer.)
 
 Election-Methods mailing list - see
 http://electorama.com/em for list info
 
 
 
 Election-Methods mailing list - see
 http://electorama.com/em for list info


  


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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Kevin Venzke
Hi Paul,

Regarding mutual majority:
The problem is that the BA voters cannot be counted as solidly committed
to {A}. They can only be counted to {B} and {A,B}. The additional A
bullet voters can only be counted to {A}. C was excluded in scenario 1
because {A,B} possessed a majority. The new A voters increase the
requirement for a majority but don't increase the strength of {A,B}.
And {A} alone is not strong enough.

It's certainly possible to criticize that the BA voters should be
allowed to help {A} somehow.


Regarding minimal defense (and I apologize for confusing the issue if
I did so, by bringing up a second criterion):

--- En date de : Sam 10.1.09, Paul Kislanko kisla...@airmail.net a écrit :
 A criterion more similar to what you have in mind, and
 which I consider
 more essential and effective than mutual majority, is this
 rendition of
 minimal defense:
 
 If a majority of the voters vote for X and don't
 vote for Y, then Y must 
 not win.
 
 Although, the effect of that criterion is that {A,B} are
 the possible
 winners in both scenarios.

 I am still not understanding. In the second scenario only A
 has a majority
 of voters' support. So how does B get included in the
 second scenario? 

A's majority support serves to disqualify C, but can't disqualify B,
because too much of A's support is also B's support. There's no majority
that votes for a common candidate and doesn't vote for B.


A criterion which said: If any candidate receives votes from a majority
of the voters, then the winner must be one of these candidates,
would be controversial because in a scenario like this:

49 AB
3 B
48 C

This hypothetical criterion would require that B be elected, when many
of us would rather say that A should win this election, because A can
defeat the other candidates pairwise. Also, if B wins, then the A voters
will feel that it wasn't safe to vote for B.

Kevin Venzke


  

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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard? JL

2009-01-11 Thread Kevin Venzke
Hi Juho,

--- En date de : Dim 11.1.09, Juho Laatu juho4...@yahoo.co.uk a écrit :
  Now Mutual Majority elects {A,B,C}.
 
 Here words Now Mutual Majority elects
 {A,B,C} are a bit confusing since mutual
 majority doesn't set any requirements on
 who should be elected (nor elect anyone).
 ...
 Maybe it would be clearer to just
 say that any candidate can be elected (A,
 B, C or any other).

Yes, that would be clearer. However, given the subject of the thread
that this comes from, it was necessary to treat Mutual Majority as a 
method and not a criterion.

If I thought it was a novel discovery that carelessly electing from
the set of candidates permissible by Mutual Majority, could violate
mono-add-plump, then I would have used better wording.

Kevin Venzke


  

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[EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Chris Benham
Kevin,

You wrote (10 Jan 2009):

26 AB
25 BA
49 C

Mutual Majority elects {A,B}

Now add 5 A bullet votes:

26 AB
25 BA
49 C
5 A

Now Mutual Majority elects {A,B,C}.

Oops!  (I knew that!)  Sorry for falsely contradicting you.

Why is mono-add-plump important?

Because as an election method algorithm that fails it
simply can't have any credibility as a quasi-intelligent 
 device (which is what it is supposed to be) and because 
 satisfying it should be (and is) very cheap.

I feel that cheapness isn't relevant to whether a criterion is important,
and certainly not to whether failing it is absurd. I save the term 
absurd for ideas that are bad regardless of what else is available.

Well I don't. If none of the election criteria were incompatible with each
other, wouldn't we say that nearly all of them are important?

Regarding your first reason: Why is it acceptable to fail mono-add-top
or Participation, but not acceptable to fail mono-add-plump? I guess
that you based this distinction almost entirely on the relative cheapness
of the criteria.

No. With mono-add-top and Participation, the quasi-intelligent device in
reviewing its decision to elect X gets (possibly relevant) information about
other candidates besides X. With mono-add-plump it gets nothing but information
about and purely in favour of X, so it has no excuse at all for changing its 
mind
about electing X.

 If we view CDTT somehow as an election method, then when it fails 
 mono-add-plump, the bullet votes for X are not simply strengthening
X, they are also *weakening* some pairwise victory of Y over Z, which X
had relied upon in order to have a majority beatpath to Z.

That just testifies to the absurdity of an algorithm  specifically putting 
some  
 special significance on majority beatpaths versus other beatpaths.

You're saying it's absurd, but what is absurd about it?

It's absurd that ballots that plump for X should in any way be considered 
relevant
to the strength of the pairwise comparison between two other candidates.
This absurdity only arises from the algorithm specifically using (and relying 
on) a
majority threshold.   

It would be better, as in less arbitrary, if you simply criticized that 
beatpath GMC is 
incompatible with ratings summation.

So is Condorcet. I don't think it's particularly arbitrary  to value electing 
a voted
Shwartz winner. I'm still a bit confused as to why anyone would be interested in
beatpath GMC.

So essentially, Schwartz//Approval is preferable to any method that satisfies 
SMD, 
Schwartz, and beatpath GMC.

Yes, much preferable to any method that satisfies beatpath GMC period

I don't feel there's an advantage to tending to elect candidates with more 
approval, because 
in turn this should just make voters approve fewer candidates when they doubt 
how the method 
will use their vote.

And why is that a negative?  I value LNHarm as an absolute guarantee, but in 
inherently- 
vulnerable-to-Burial  Condocet methods, I think it is better if they have a 
watch who you rank
because you could help elect them Approval flavour.

From your earlier post:
In the three-candidate case, at least, I think it's a problem to elect a 
candidate who isn't in the 
CDTT.

Why?

25: AB
26: BC
23: CA
26: C

In this situation 2 election from my demonstration, can you seriously contend 
(with a straight face)
that electing C is a problem?   Refresh my memory: who first suggested  Max. 
Approval Opposition 
as a way of measuring a candidate's strength?


Chris Benham


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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Kristofer Munsterhjelm

Juho Laatu wrote:

--- On Sun, 11/1/09, Kristofer Munsterhjelm km-el...@broadpark.no wrote:


Let's consider the first election first, with
truncation extended to full preference:

26: A  B  C
25: B  A  C
49: C  A = B



A B C: 100 prefer {A B C} to the empty set


This case is interesting (not that it
would have any impact on the ongoing
mutual majority discussion but just
for theoretical interest).

The number of candidates was not exactly
stated in the example. If there are e.g.
four candidates then the votes would be:

26: A  B  C = D
25: B  A  C = D
49: C  A = B = D

Set {A, B, C} has in this case no support.

Let's assume that there are also other
citizens (=potential candidates who
are however not candidates) than the
named candidates. The opinions of the
first 26 voters could be as follows.

26: X1  A  B  X2  C = D = X3  X4

The point here is that the voters have
not said that they would prefer A, B, C
and D to the other citizens / potential
candidates (X1, X2,...).

It is ok to say that if there are no
mutual majorities the winner can be
elected from the whole set of candidates
{A, B, C} or {A, B, C, D} or whatever set.
One can not say that the voters would
prefer the all the candidates (or those
that are named on the ballots) to other
citizens. What is the meaning of saying
that they prefer these candidates to an
empty set?


There is no real meaning - it's just an artifact of taking the process 
to its conclusion. The only thing it means is that all voters who voted, 
voted for the candidates they voted for, which is a tautology.


Smaller unanimity sets can only exist if there's a candidate or a 
candidate set that everybody ranks last.


Also note that changing a vote from A  B to X1  A  B can dissolve 
what would otherwise be a majority for {A B}. Mutual majority isn't 
complete - it only says that in certain cases (majority support for a 
set), certain things should happen (the method should elect from the 
set). In that respect, it's kind of like independence of clones. You can 
make a method that technically passes mutual majority yet wouldn't be 
any good, just like you can prefix a method with remove clones yet it 
would be a bad method if a single voter didn't vote clones in strict 
clone order.


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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Juho Laatu
--- On Sun, 11/1/09, Kristofer Munsterhjelm km-el...@broadpark.no wrote:

 Juho Laatu wrote:
  --- On Sun, 11/1/09, Kristofer Munsterhjelm
 km-el...@broadpark.no wrote:
  
  Let's consider the first election first, with
  truncation extended to full preference:
  
  26: A  B  C
  25: B  A  C
  49: C  A = B
  
 A B C: 100 prefer {A B C} to the empty set
  
  This case is interesting (not that it
  would have any impact on the ongoing
  mutual majority discussion but just
  for theoretical interest).
  
  The number of candidates was not exactly
  stated in the example. If there are e.g.
  four candidates then the votes would be:
  
  26: A  B  C = D
  25: B  A  C = D
  49: C  A = B = D
  
  Set {A, B, C} has in this case no support.
  
  Let's assume that there are also other
  citizens (=potential candidates who
  are however not candidates) than the
  named candidates. The opinions of the
  first 26 voters could be as follows.
  
  26: X1  A  B  X2  C = D = X3  X4
  
  The point here is that the voters have
  not said that they would prefer A, B, C
  and D to the other citizens / potential
  candidates (X1, X2,...).
  
  It is ok to say that if there are no
  mutual majorities the winner can be
  elected from the whole set of candidates
  {A, B, C} or {A, B, C, D} or whatever set.
  One can not say that the voters would
  prefer the all the candidates (or those
  that are named on the ballots) to other
  citizens. What is the meaning of saying
  that they prefer these candidates to an
  empty set?
 
 There is no real meaning - it's just an artifact of
 taking the process to its conclusion. The only thing it
 means is that all voters who voted, voted for the candidates
 they voted for, which is a tautology.
 
 Smaller unanimity sets can only exist if there's a
 candidate or a candidate set that everybody ranks last.
 
 Also note that changing a vote from A  B to X1  A
  B can dissolve what would otherwise be a majority for
 {A B}. Mutual majority isn't complete - it only says
 that in certain cases (majority support for a set), certain
 things should happen (the method should elect from the set).
 In that respect, it's kind of like independence of
 clones. You can make a method that technically passes mutual
 majority yet wouldn't be any good, just like you can
 prefix a method with remove clones yet it would
 be a bad method if a single voter didn't vote clones in
 strict clone order.

Yes. I wish we had a more stable definitions and terms
for discussing about criteria and how they are applied
(e.g. just to meet the criterion or also its spirit
when working outside of the defined scope of the
criterion).

Since all criteria can not be met I'd also like to have
terminology for almost meeting some criteria, and
following the spirit in most cases although not fully
and formally meeting the criterion.

(One example. Minmax(margins) doesn't meet independence
of clones nor mutual majority, but it is very close to
meeting both. It elects the candidate with weakest
opposition instead (= their strength over the defenders
when compared pairwise to any of the other candidates),
and wile following this good principle is forced to
violate the other good principles.)

All methods violate some criteria. Typically we need a
good balance of the violations and appropriate level of
violation of each criterion.

Juho








  


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Re: [EM] The structuring of power and the composition of norms by communicative assent

2009-01-11 Thread Juho Laatu
Here's one comment. The topmost thoughts in
my mind when thinking about this approach
is that 1) the principles are good and 2)
making the votes public limits the usability
of the method. Traditionally secret votes
have been a building block of democracies.
Public votes work somewhere but not
everywhere.

Juho



--- On Tue, 6/1/09, Michael Allan m...@zelea.com wrote:

 I completed a theory outline, and here I'm posting it
 for the record.
 Critique is also welcome.  Please point out flaws or
 ommissions.





  


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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard? JL

2009-01-11 Thread Kevin Venzke
Hi Juho,

--- En date de : Dim 11.1.09, Juho Laatu juho4...@yahoo.co.uk a écrit :
 If there is a set of voters that form a
 majority and they all prefer all candidates
 of set A to all candidates of set B then
 candidates of set B should not win.
 
 This helps A (as requested) by at least
 eliminating some of the candidates from
 competing with A.
 
 This criterion may also eliminate all
 candidates. In such situations the rule of
 course will not apply.
 
 I haven't really thought what implications
 there are. Any comments?

I would say you're close to inventing again either MDD or beatpath
GMC / CDTT. All you've essentially said is that if A has a majority
over B, B can't win. Because, each candidate could make up their own set.
Having multiple candidates in a set doesn't make any difference.

Under MDD the candidates of set B cannot be elected unless all candidates
can be placed in a set B. This is inherently not cloneproof.

Under beatpath GMC / CDTT the candidates of set B cannot be elected
unless they have a majority-strength beatpath to all the candidates of 
set A. However, lacking this, the candidates of set B can also be
disqualified when the candidates of set A merely have a majority-strength
beatpath to the candidates of set B.

A few years ago I considered a set where it wouldn't be enough for set A
to merely have a beatpath to set B, in order to disqualify those 
candidates. But from what I remember, there were monotonicity problems.
I guess there are probably clone problems also.

Kevin Venzke


  

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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard? JL

2009-01-11 Thread Juho Laatu
Ok, that relaxed version of mutual majority degraded faster to basic majority 
than I expected. Need to think more if there is something to conclude from the 
BA votes.

Juho


--- On Mon, 12/1/09, Kevin Venzke step...@yahoo.fr wrote:

 From: Kevin Venzke step...@yahoo.fr
 Subject: Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard? JL
 To: election-meth...@electorama.com
 Date: Monday, 12 January, 2009, 12:20 AM
 Hi Juho,
 
 --- En date de : Dim 11.1.09, Juho Laatu
 juho4...@yahoo.co.uk a écrit :
  If there is a set of voters that form a
  majority and they all prefer all candidates
  of set A to all candidates of set B then
  candidates of set B should not win.
  
  This helps A (as requested) by at least
  eliminating some of the candidates from
  competing with A.
  
  This criterion may also eliminate all
  candidates. In such situations the rule of
  course will not apply.
  
  I haven't really thought what implications
  there are. Any comments?
 
 I would say you're close to inventing again either MDD
 or beatpath
 GMC / CDTT. All you've essentially said is that if A
 has a majority
 over B, B can't win. Because, each candidate could make
 up their own set.
 Having multiple candidates in a set doesn't make any
 difference.
 
 Under MDD the candidates of set B cannot be elected unless
 all candidates
 can be placed in a set B. This is inherently not
 cloneproof.
 
 Under beatpath GMC / CDTT the candidates of set B cannot be
 elected
 unless they have a majority-strength beatpath to all the
 candidates of 
 set A. However, lacking this, the candidates of set B can
 also be
 disqualified when the candidates of set A merely have a
 majority-strength
 beatpath to the candidates of set B.
 
 A few years ago I considered a set where it wouldn't be
 enough for set A
 to merely have a beatpath to set B, in order to disqualify
 those 
 candidates. But from what I remember, there were
 monotonicity problems.
 I guess there are probably clone problems also.
 
 Kevin Venzke
 
 
   
 
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Re: [EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Kevin Venzke
Hi Chris,

--- En date de : Dim 11.1.09, Chris Benham cbenha...@yahoo.com.au a écrit :
 Kevin,
 
 You wrote (10 Jan 2009):
 
 26 AB
 25 BA
 49 C
 
 Mutual Majority elects {A,B}
 
 Now add 5 A bullet votes:
 
 26 AB
 25 BA
 49 C
 5 A
 
 Now Mutual Majority elects {A,B,C}.
 
 Oops!  (I knew that!)  Sorry for falsely contradicting
 you.

I guessed you must have known that.

 Why is mono-add-plump important?
 
 Because as an election method algorithm that fails it
 simply can't have any credibility as a
 quasi-intelligent 
  device (which is what it is supposed to be) and
 because 
  satisfying it should be (and is) very cheap.
 
 I feel that cheapness isn't relevant to whether a
 criterion is important,
 and certainly not to whether failing it is absurd. I save
 the term 
 absurd for ideas that are bad regardless of
 what else is available.
 
 Well I don't. If none of the election criteria were
 incompatible with each
 other, wouldn't we say that nearly all of them are
 important?

I don't think so. There are reasons for criteria to be important
other than how easy they are to satisfy. Otherwise why would we ever
bother to satisfy the difficult criteria?

 Regarding your first reason: Why is it acceptable to
 fail mono-add-top
 or Participation, but not acceptable to fail
 mono-add-plump? I guess
 that you based this distinction almost entirely on the
 relative cheapness
 of the criteria.
 
 No. With mono-add-top and Participation, the
 quasi-intelligent device in
 reviewing its decision to elect X gets (possibly
 relevant) information about
 other candidates besides X.

How can it be relevant? X was winning and X is the preferred candidate
on the new ballots.

 With mono-add-plump it gets
 nothing but information
 about and purely in favour of X, so it has no excuse at all
 for changing its mind
 about electing X.

I don't think the information is purely about X. The method also learns
about indecision between Y and Z.

  If we view CDTT somehow as an election method,
 then when it fails 
  mono-add-plump, the bullet votes for X are not simply
 strengthening
 X, they are also *weakening* some pairwise victory of Y
 over Z, which X
 had relied upon in order to have a majority beatpath
 to Z.
 
 That just testifies to the absurdity of an algorithm
  specifically putting some  
  special significance on majority beatpaths
 versus other beatpaths.
 
 You're saying it's absurd, but what is absurd
 about it?
 
 It's absurd that ballots that plump for X should in any
 way be considered relevant
 to the strength of the pairwise comparison
 between two other candidates.
 This absurdity only arises from the
 algorithm specifically using (and relying on) a
 majority threshold.

Instead of strength you could view it as decisiveness.

This is moot anyway, isn't it? We have Mutual Majority and beatpath GMC
displaying the same phenomenon. Clearly there's no problem since neither
criterion requires failures of mono-add-plump.

 It would be better, as in less arbitrary, if you
 simply criticized that beatpath GMC is 
 incompatible with ratings summation.
 
 So is Condorcet. I don't think it's particularly
 arbitrary  to value electing a voted
 Shwartz winner. I'm still a bit confused as to why
 anyone would be interested in
 beatpath GMC.

Well, it's a majority-rule criterion that is compatible with clone
independence and monotonicity. In the three-candidate case it's also
compatible with LNHarm. By adding a vote for your second choice, you
can't inadvertently remove your first preference from the CDTT.

 So essentially, Schwartz//Approval is preferable to
 any method that satisfies SMD, 
 Schwartz, and beatpath GMC.
 
 Yes, much preferable to any method that satisfies
 beatpath GMC period
 
 I don't feel there's an advantage to tending
 to elect candidates with more approval, because 
 in turn this should just make voters approve fewer
 candidates when they doubt how the method 
 will use their vote.
 
 And why is that a negative?  I value LNHarm as an absolute
 guarantee, but in inherently- 
 vulnerable-to-Burial  Condocet methods, I think it is
 better if they have a watch who you rank
 because you could help elect them Approval flavour.

This is a negative because it suggests that your positional criterion
will be self-defeating. If you want to write a criterion about burial,
that would probably be better.

 From your earlier post:
 In the three-candidate case, at least, I think
 it's a problem to elect a candidate who isn't in the
 CDTT.
 
 Why?

Because in the three-candidate case this is likely to be a failure
of MD or SFC, or close to it.

 25: AB
 26: BC
 23: CA
 26: C
 
 In this situation 2 election from my
 demonstration, can you seriously contend (with a straight
 face)
 that electing C is a problem?

It's not ideal. You have to use the BC votes contrary to the wishes of
those voters, and for little purpose that isn't self-defeating 
considering that voters will just truncate, accomplishing the same result 
as 

Re: [EM] The structuring of power and the composition of norms by communicative assent

2009-01-11 Thread Michael Allan
Juho Laatu wrote:
 ... The topmost thoughts in my mind when thinking about this
 approach is that 1) the principles are good and 2) making the votes
 public limits the usability of the method. Traditionally secret
 votes have been a building block of democracies.  Public votes work
 somewhere but not everywhere.

(1). Re good principles.  I've heard it suggested that modern
democracy is the political form that is best suited to
capitalism.^[1][2]  If we change it to something with a firmer base in
principles - a more substansive democracy - will it continue to be
friendly to business entrepreneurs?  If not, what will happen?  Has
anyone explored that scenario?  (Any references?)

(2). Re public/private voting.  Maybe there are two possibilities:

  i) Initial participation by a small group of public pioneers
 gradually changes attitudes.  Open voting comes to be accepted as
 a natural form of expression in the public sphere.  Participation
 levels grow.  (There remains a core who will not/cannot vote
 openly.  We can get empirical data on this.)

 ii) A private voting facility (secret ballot) is grafted onto the
 public medium.  Anyone who is content to participate merely as a
 voter (not as a delegate, or legislative drafter, etc.) may vote
 without disclosure.  So we could extend participation to those
 who will not/cannot vote openly.  Results verification (and maybe
 voter authentication) would be complicated by this, but the
 overall function of the medium should be unaffected.
 

[1] Jürgen Habermas.  1973.  Legitimation Crisis.  Translated by
Thomas McCarthy, 1975.  Beacon Hill, Boston.

[2] John Dunn.  1992.  Conclusion.  In Democracy: the Unfinished
Journey, 508 BC to AD 1993.  Edited by John Dunn.  Oxford
University Press.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/


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[EM] Beatpath GMC compliance a mistaken standard?

2009-01-11 Thread Chris Benham
Kevin,

You wrote (11 Jan 2009):

There are reasons for criteria to be important other than how easy they are 
to satisfy. 
Otherwise why would we ever bother to satisfy the difficult criteria?

Well, if  as I said none of the criteria were incompatible with each other 
then
presumably none of the criteria would be difficult.

With mono-add-top and Participation, the quasi-intelligent device in
reviewing its decision to elect X gets (possibly relevant) information 
about other candidates besides X.

How can it be relevant? X was winning and X is the preferred candidate
on the new ballots.

You know that Condorcet is incompatible with mono-add-top (and so of course
Participation), so if we value compliance with the Condorcet criterion 
information
about candidates ranked below X must sometimes be relevant. But even if  the 
quasi-intelligent device is mistaken in treating them as relevant, then that is 
a much
more understandable  and much less serious a blunder than the mono-add-plump
failure.

It's absurd that ballots that plump for X should in any way be considered 
 relevant to the strength of the pairwise comparison between two other 
 candidates.
This absurdity only arises from the algorithm specifically using (and relying 
on) 
 a majority threshold.
 
We have Mutual Majority and beatpath GMC displaying the same phenomenon.
 
No. I don't accept that 'being tossed out of the favoured (not excluded from 
winning)
set' is exactly the same phenomenon as 'being joined by others in the 
favoured set'.
The latter is obviously far less serious.

I don't feel there's an advantage to tending
to elect candidates with more approval, because 
in turn this should just make voters approve fewer
candidates when they doubt how the method 
will use their vote.

And why is that a negative?  I value LNHarm as an absolute
guarantee, but in inherently- vulnerable-to-Burial  Condocet 
 methods, I think it is better if they have a watch who you rank
because you could help elect them Approval flavour.

This is a negative because it suggests that your positional criterion
will be self-defeating.
 
How can it possibly be self-defeating?  What is there to defeat?

From your earlier post:
In the three-candidate case, at least, I think it's a problem to elect a 
 candidate who isn't in the CDTT.

Why?

Because in the three-candidate case this is likely to be a failure of MD or 
SFC, 
or close to it.
 
I'm happy to have MD, and I don't care about SFC or close failures of  MD.
 
 I'm still a bit confused as to why anyone would be interested in
beatpath GMC.

Well, it's a majority-rule criterion that is compatible with clone
independence and monotonicity.
 
Other majority-rule criteria with those same properties will suffice. 

In the three-candidate case it's also compatible with LNHarm. By adding a vote 
for 
your second choice, you can't inadvertently remove your first preference from 
the CDTT.
 
Well since Condorcet is incompatible with LNHarm, that doesn't explain why 
Condorcet
fans should like it.  Also I think this is mainly just putting a positive spin 
on gross unfairness
to truncators and the related silly random-fill incentive.
 
25: AB
26: BC
23: CA
26: C
100 ballots (majority threshold = 51)

BC 51-27,   CA 75-25,   AB 48-26.
 
In Schulze(Winning Votes), and I think also in any method that meets beatpath 
GMC
and mono-raise, the 26C truncators can virtually guarantee that C be elected by 
using
the random-fill strategy. That is silly and unfair.
 
Also, by artificially denying  the clearly strongest candidate  any method that 
doesn't
elect C must be vulnerable to Pushover, certainly much more than those that do 
elect C.

http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-electorama.com/2008-December/023590.html
 
(not that that is a very relevant strategy problem for the methods like WV that 
have the
much easier and safer random-fill strategy for the C(B=C) voters.)
 

Chris  Benham


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