[lbo-talk] Re: Nader as Condorcet winner

[Tim Francis-Wright]

Mitchell Cohen wrote:
> 
> A short while back, some folks challenged my assertion that under the 
> Condorcet version of Proportional Representation Ralph Nader would have won 
> the Presidential election. Well, here is the reference, read it yourself.
> Mitchel Cohen
> 
> Barry Burden's analysis of the 2000 National Election Survey with 
> discussion of the Condorcet vote is posted at 
> http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/hweisberg/conference/burdosu.pdf

That's hardly a fair summation of the paper, however.    To quote from
page 3:

   "Examining the pre-election rankings, Nader beats Buchanan (659-200),
Gore (527-500), and Bush (562-491), thus making him the Condorcet
winner.  Running through the list of voting methods that are commonly
discussed in textbooks on the subject (e.g., Shepsle and Bonchek 1997),
Gore wins whether using a plurality runoff, sequential runoff, Borda
count, or approval voting."

In other words, using the methods proposed for actually running
elections (because Condorcet winners do not have to exist for
elections), Nader loses.

Also intriguing is this from Page 4: "Nader voters say they felt less
enthusiastic about their choice than did people who voted for one of the
other three candidates."  Now that's a stirring endorsement from the
dataset.

--tim francis-wright