Chaotic Elections !

A Mathematician Looks at Voting

Donald G. Saari

160 pages, parution le 15/02/2002

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Résumé

"This book shows how mathematics can help to identify and characterize a disturbingly large number of paradoxical situations that result from the choice of a voting procedure. Moreover, rather than being able to dismiss them as anomalies, the likelihood of a dubious election result is suprisingly large. These consequences indicate that election outcomes - whether for president, the site of the next Olympics, the chair of a university department, or a prize winner - can differ from what the voters really wanted. They show that by using an inadequate voting procedure, we can, inadvertently, choose badly. To add to the difficulties, it turns out that the mathematical structures of voting admit several strategic opportunities, which are described." "Finally, mathematics also helps identify positive results: By using mathematical symmetries, we can identify what the phrase "what the voters really want" might mean and obtain a unique voting method that satisfies these conditions." "Saari's book is for anyone who wants to understand not only what happened in the presidential election of 2000, but also how we can avoid similar problems from appearing anytime any group is making a choice using a voting procedure. Reading this book requires little more than high school mathematics and an interest in how the apparently simple situation of voting can lead to surprising paradoxes."

Contents

Preface

Ch. 1 A Mess of an Election
Ch. 2 Voter Preferences, or the Procedure?
Ch. 3 Chaotic Election Outcomes
Ch. 4 How to Be Strategic
Ch. 5 What Do the Voters Want?
Ch. 6 Other Procedures; Other Assumptions

Bibliography
Index

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	American Mathematical Society (AMS)
Auteur(s)	Donald G. Saari
Parution	15/02/2002
Nb. de pages	160
Format	18 x 25,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	324g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780821828472
ISBN13	978-0-8218-2847-2