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The Institute is named after Jean-Charles de Borda, and hence the well-known voting procedure, the Borda Count BC; but Jean-Charles actually invented what is now called the Modified Borda Count, MBC - the difference is subtle:
In a vote on n options, the voter may cast m preferences; and, of course, m < n.
In a BC, points are awarded to (1st, 2nd ... last) preferences cast according to the rule (n, n-1 ... 1) {or (n-1, n-2 ... 0)} whereas,
in an MBC, points are awarded to (1st, 2nd ... last) preferences cast according to the rule (m, m-1 ... 1).
The difference can be huge, especially when the topic is controversial: the BC benefits those who cast only a 1st preference; the MBC encourages the consensual, those who submit not only a 1st preference but also their 2nd (and subsequent) compromise option(s). And if (nearly) every voter states their compromise option(s), an MBC can identify the collective compromise.
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DECISION-MAKER
Inclusive voting app
https://debordavote.com
THE APP TO BEAT ALL APPS, APPSOLUTELY!
(The latest in a long-line of electronic voting for decision-making; our first was in 1991.)
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FINANCES
The Institute was estabished in 1997 with a cash grant of £3,000 from the Joseph Rowntree Charitabe Trust, and has received the occasional sum from Northern Ireland's Community Relations Council and others. Today it relies on voluntary donations and the voluntary work of its board, while most running expenses are paid by the director.
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A BLOG
"De Borda abroad." From Belfast to Beijing and beyond... and back. Starting in Vienna with the Sept 2017 TEDx talk, I give lectures in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Tehran, Beijing, Tianjin, Xuzhou, Hong Kong and Taiwan... but not in Pyongyang. Then back via Mongolia (where I had been an election observer in June 2017) and Moscow (where I'd worked in the '80s).
I have my little fold-up Brompton with me - surely the best way of exploring any new city! So I prefer to go by train, boat or bus, and then cycle wherever in each new venue; and all with just one plastic water bottle... or that was the intention!
In Sept 2019, I set off again, to promote the book of the journey. After the ninth book launch in Taipei University, I went to stay with friends in a little village in Gansu for the Chinese New Year. The rat. Then came the virus, lockdown... and I was stuck.
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The Hospital for Incurable Protestants The Mémoire of a Collapsed Catholic This is the story of a pacifist in a conflict zone, in Northern Ireland and the Balkans. Only in e-format, but only £5.15. Available from Amazon. |
The director alongside the statue of Jean-Charles de Borda, capitaine et savant, in l’École Navale in Brest, 24.9.2010. Photo by Gwenaelle Bichelot.
Here's the YouTube, the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).
Monday, June 2, 2025 There was rightful reason yesterday – majoritarianism was certainly better than many a minority diktat – but today, there is little or no justification for the use of binary voting and its consequence, majority rule.
Sunday, May 18, 2025 13/15th May, the National University of Mongolia debated traffic pollution in Ulaanbaatar, with an MBC analysis. Here's the report. TWO MODIFIED BORDA COUNTs, MBCs, on the question of: “pollution in Ulaanbaatar.”
Friday, April 25, 2025 In a role-play in Tiānjīn University, participants (debated and) voted on the optimal size of Tiānjīn's population, and here's the report: A MODIFIED BORDA COUNT MBC on the question: “What should be the size of Tiānjīn’s optimal population?”
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 BINARY VOTING: MAYBE WE ALL GOT IT WRONG “Yin and Yang, a cosmic duality of opposing but complimentary… forces… lie at the centre of Chinese mystical thought.” 2 I arrived in Yúnnán....
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 
Our patron, Professor Yáng Lóng introduced a talk on 'Majority Voting - Maybe we all got it Wrong' on 22nd April. For the talk, see 2025-06.
Friday, March 7, 2025 Good COPs and bad COPs. For an Asian perspective on decision-making, see the latest in https://theecologist.org/2025/mar/07/voting-consensus
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 My journey starts on 30th Jan from 香格里拉 Shangri-La, visiting villages and talking about their way of life, on my way to Dali, where I meet an ethnic minority, and another village or two.
Next is a traditional Tibetan wedding in a village in the mountains of Sichuan. Then it's back to the bicycle, now in Guangdong, where I base my countryside tour on the town of Chunwan, from where I go to some of the villages nearby, one of which is celebrating a granny's 70th birthday! (Great logistics; I leave all my luggage in the hotel, and cycle off for the day, out tio the sticks.)
While here, I spend a few days in Hong Kong to renew my visa, and then I'm off to Hunan.
Later on, I hope to go Nánkāi University in Tianjin, before then heading to Beijing for the Fourth 'International Forum on Democracy,' run by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 中国社会科学院 (tbc).
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 The Pahlé India Foundation hosted a demonstration of decision-making, with all present using the de Borda software: www.debordavote.com Here's the report: PAHLÉ INDIA FOUNDATION: A PREFERENTIAL VOTE ROLE-PLAY ON REFORMING INDIA’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTORAL SYSTEM 16th January, Delhi. www.debordavote.com “the nonduality of right and wrong [is] the state of a buddha.” Longchenpa, a Buddhist monk of the Nyingma tradition. BACKGROUND It seems the human being is naturally binary, with two eyes,
Thursday, January 16, 2025 The Ecologist has just published:
https://theecologist.org/2025/jan/16/how-get-consensus-cop30
To beat the COPs' undemocratic oil lobby, let's be more democratic!
Tuesday, December 24, 2024 "Love one another," we are told from the pulpit. "Vote ('for' or) 'against' each other, they say at the hustings. But nothing in politics is binary, not if the question is asked properly: 'hanging, yes-or-no?' is best replaced by 'how best does society deal with the convicted murderer?'
Would life be better if everyone were to vote 'with' each other: on a ballot of say 5 options, (as befits a 5-party parliament), stating in oder of preference what they admire/like/tolerate, so to identify, at best, the option with the highest average preference. And an average involves everyone, of course: the methodology is inclusive, literally.
Politics is the art of compromise. Preferential voting is its science. And democracy should be for everyone, not just a faction. It should be win-win: a few might win everything, many will win much, most wii get something... and preferential decision-making could spell the end of majority rule.
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Maybe the ancient Greeks got it wrong. Maybe "the non-duality of right and wrong... is the state of a Buddha." (Longchenpa.)
