DEMOCRACY IS FOR
EVERYBODY, NOT
JUST FOR A (OR
THE) MAJORITY.
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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).
Saturday, February 19, 2022 Published in NI newspapers: What Putin did in 2014 in Crimea was wrong. But it was also wrong for the UK to colonise the Chagos Islands and then deport the local
Friday, January 21, 2022 Springer has commissioned another 'de Borda' book - their 6th - and, as the title suggests, this one is going to be (much cheaper and) really simple, to persuade the whole world to stop using the primitive, often divisive, always Orwellian, and sometimes inaccurate binary vote on matters controversial. After all, as COP26 implied, we can't tackle (Covid and) Climate Change by majority vote. See 2022-8.
Saturday, December 11, 2021 At the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the de Borda Institute gave a 10-minute power-point video on 14th December to the international conference on “Democracy - Shared Human Values”. <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/643482388?h=e0ebe68a4d" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Sunday, November 21, 2021 INNATE asked de Borda to give a presentation on
International peace work in Ireland on 24th November; a tale focussed mainly on Bosnia.
Friday, October 15, 2021 On 28th Oct, participants (mainly from Bosnia, but others from Ireland, The Netheralns and the US) zoomed on COP26. In break-out rooms, groups discussed ideas. In plenary, on a collated list of these ideas, they cast their preferences... all on-line, ( www.debordavote.org ) and identified their collective prioritisation.
All thanks to Humanity in Action, Sarajevo, https://www.humanityinaction.org/country/bosnia-herzegovina/
and
Democratization Policy Council www.democratizationpolicy.org
Friday, September 24, 2021 Hosted by the Institute for Applied Mechanism Design (IFAMD, http://www.ifamd.org ), a 'mini-Bundestag' of 58 'MPs' elected an 'all-party Government of National Unity'.
https://vimeo.com/628605367/b3a04d1e2f
Top of the matix poll was Robert Habeck (GP) for Environment. In all, the Cabinet was 5 CDU, 4 SPD, 3 GP, 2 FDP, 1 AfD and 0 Der Linke. Here is the report with the full results.
Monday, August 30, 2021 Dear Editor, One of our many mistakes was surely the notion that a divisive democracy...
Sunday, August 15, 2021 https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/why-ireland-needs-look-beyond-binary-referendum-unification/
See also 2021-10
Sunday, August 8, 2021 On 26th Sept, Germany goes to the polls. On 4th Oct, in a webinar
Sunday, August 1, 2021 Dear Alan, "...the theory of voting... appears to be wholly unknown to
