Business and Government

Sessions 6-7
Framework
Where do I stand?
• Economic Axis = -5.38
• Social Axis = -6.15
PGP 20
Authoritarian
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Libertarian
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PGP 23
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AUTHORITARIAN

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Voting systems
Three or More Candidates

Group 1 (37% of pop.) Group 2 (30% of pop.) Group 3 (33% of pop.)

First Choice A B C

Second Choice B C B

Third Choice C A A
Three or More Candidates
• The system we typically use is called plurality voting

• Each voter casts a single vote for their top preference, and the
candidate that gets more votes than any other is the winner
Three or More Candidates
• The winner A is the least preferred choice for majority of the voters

• C would beat A if they were the only two candidates in the race

• An alternative is instant run-off

• Here we run several rounds of a plurality election, removing the loser in each round,
and moving the voters who supported them to the next choice on their ballot

• Voters need to just supply their preference list once

Three or More Candidates
• B was unfortunate to be eliminated in the first round as she has broad support — 
she is the first or second choice of every voter

• Another alternative is Borda count (due to Jean-Charles de Borda)

• The Borda count is a system that takes that into account. In this system, each
position on the ballot is given a score. With only three candidates it would be like
this: first choice gets 3 points; second choice gets 2 point; third choice gets 1
points. The population weighted average score determines the winner

• A - the candidate with highest number of votes (majority candidate) loses

The Condorcet Method (due to Marquis
de Condorcet)
• Every voter fills out a ballot that lists his or her entire preference list

• Once all of the ballots are submitted, we consider all of the different pairings
of two candidates against one another

• If there are three candidates, there are three pairings: A vs. B, A vs. C, and B
vs. C

• If there are four candidates, there are six pairings: A&B, A&C, A&D, B&C,
B&D, C&D
Finding the Winner of a Pairwise Election
• Using the preference ballots, we determine the winner of each pairwise election

• Recall the voter (in Group 1) who submitted the ballot with preference A > B > C

• In the A vs. B election, this vote would count toward A’s total, since it lists A higher
than B

• The Condorcet winner is the candidate who would beat every other candidate in a
head-to-head majority vote

• A Condorcet winner, if it exists, is unique

The Condorcet Winner?
Advantages of Condorcet’s Method
• One big advantage of this method is that it allows voters to express
their full preferences

• In addition, the method relies on majority rule, which we know to be

a “fair” system

• However, the Condorcet method has a major flaw, which was known
to Condorcet even as he was advocating its use
The “Condorcet Paradox”
• Consider this voter profile Number
Preference Order
of Voters
with three candidates
10 A>B>C
9 B>C>A
8 C>A>B
The “Condorcet Paradox”
• Consider this voter profile Number
Preference Order
of Voters
with three candidates
10 A>B>C
9 B>C>A
8 C>A>B

A B A C B C
10 10 10
9 9 9
8 8 8
Total: 18 Total: 9 Total: 10 Total: 17 Total: 19 Total: 8
Using Condorcet as a Guide
• The major flaw of Condorcet’s method is that it sometimes doesn’t
determine a winner
• Imagine the chaos that would result if this occurred during a national
election
• However, if there is a Condorcet winner, it is natural to think that the
Condorcet winner should be the winner of an election
• Borda count does not, in general, pick the Condorcet winner
• Now we may understand why plural voting system is the most
practical choice, despite its limitations