Navigation
About us

.

THE DE BORDA RULE


A MAJORITY VOTE

 MAY BE FAIR IF, 

  AND ONLY IF,

ITS DICHOTOMY 

  IS A DUALITY.

 

 

DEMOCRACY IS FOR

EVERYBODY, NOT

JUST FOR A (OR

THE) MAJORITY.

 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/ 

 

Another journey to China, via Baku (COP29), Georgia, India, and return via Mongolia, Russia and (therefore) Ukraine.  Here's the blog: https://deborda.substack.com/p/debordaabroad2

 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

The de Borda Institute

aims to promote the use of inclusive, multi-optional and preferential voting procedures, both in parliaments/congresses and in referendums, on all contentious questions of social choice.

This applies specifically to decision-making, be it for the electorate in regional/national polls, for their elected representatives in councils and parliaments, for members of a local community group, a company board, a co-operative, and so on.  But we also cover elections.

               * * * * *

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.

 _/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-

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.)

 _/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-

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. 

 _/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-

 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!

The story is here.

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.

_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-_/-

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. 

Search
Login
Subscribe
Powered by Squarespace
Annual Reports
Decision-Maker APP
Won by One
MBC
QBS
The Matrix Vote
Practical Examples
WELCOME

Welcome to the home page of the de Borda Institute, a Northern Ireland-based international organisation (an NGO) which aims to promote the use of inclusive voting procedures on all contentious questions of social choice. For more information use the menu options above or feel free to contact the organisation's headquarters. If you want to check the meaning of any of the terms used, then by all means have a look at this glossary.

As shown in these attachments, there are many voting procedures for use in decision-making and even more electoral systems.  This is because, in decision-making, there is usually only one outcome - a singe decision or a shopping ist, a prioritisation; but with some electoral systems, and definitely in any proportional ones, there can be several winners.  Sometimes, for any one voters' profile - that is, the set of all their preferences - the outcome of any count may well depend on the voting procedure used.  In this very simple example of a few voters voting on just four options, and in these two hypothetical examples on five, (word document) or (Power-point) in which a few cast their preferences on five options, the profiles are analysed according to different methodologies, and the winner could be any one of all the options.  Yet all of these methodologies are called democratic!  Extraordinary!

Main | 2026-05 Dichotomies and Dualities »
Monday
Feb232026

2026-06 Ukraine, 4th year; press release  

DateMonday, February 23, 2026

PRESS RELEASE       IMMEDIATE     23.2.2026                              

 

UKRAINE

4th ANNIVERSARY OF RUSSIAN INVASION – 24.2.2026

 

THE LESSONS OF WAR!

 

1          In 1991, Ukraine held a referendum on independence; every oblast voted in favour by over 80%... except Crimea, only 54%.  Maybe such a small margin should have prompted a re-run, with other options like ‘joint authority’ or whatever also on the ballot paper.  (The lessons for Belfast are obvious.)

2          The EU (EC) advised Ukraine to adopt a majoritarian form of democracy (even though the Russian word for ‘majoritarianism’ is ‘bolshevism’ (большевизм).  The 2004 presidential election was held under the two-round system, TRS, which can be very binary; thus the one country of mainly Slav-speaking Christians turned into a country divided, with mainly pro-Europe Ukrainian-speaking Orthodox and Catholic Yushchenko supporters versus the pro-Moscow Russian-speaking folks in the Donbas and so on, voting for Yanukovich.  The former won, just.  But he won everything: majority rule.

In 2010, Yanukovich won, just.  Everything.  Violence followed: Maidan.  The EU then changed its mind: democracy was not majority rule, it was now power-sharing.  A delegation rushed over to Kiev… but arrived on the very day that Yanukovich ran into exile.

3          2014 was also the year of the Scottish referendum.  There followed in Ukraine the referendum (with little green men) in Crimea, and two more, in Luhansk and Donetsk.  In Luhansk, Russian separatists used the word Scotland (Shotlandiya, Шотландия).  And just as Northern Ireland opted out of Ireland when Ireland opted out of the UK, so too Dobropillia tried to opt out of Donetsk when Donetsk opted out of Ukraine.  

THE LESSON ARE:

1          Both in decision-making and in elections, binary voting may be inappropriate.          .

2          The Right of Self-determination is an instrument of de-colonisation, not of secession.

 

AuthorDeborda | Comments Off |

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend