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, June 6, 2020 Munich Social Science Review, New Series, vol. 3 (2020) Can Rights Be Wrong? Towards a Less Majoritarian More Inclusive Democracy Abstract: Catastrophic changes to our climate, numerous conflicts of majorities versus minorities, and now Covid-19 tell us that we must start working not against but with each other. Majority rule, however, ‘binary majority rule’ is divisive...
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 THE MATRIX VOTE 1 The procedure is as follows: i) Each
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Majority Voting as a Catalyst of Populism, 2019, (Springer, Heidelberg)
Following on from 2019-31, we've had three more book launches:
ix) Taipei: on 8th Jan. in National Taiwan University;
x) Hong Kong: on 20th Feb. care of the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation in the Foreign Correspondents' Club;
xi) Kuala Lumpur, on 15th March at Gerakbudaya Bookshop.
xii) Dublin, on 2nd October; see 2020-09.
Sunday, January 19, 2020 Comparing the accuracy of different decision-making systems – from binary voting to preferential – is relatively easy. Because of pr, however....
Sunday, January 19, 2020 As others have also implied, when so many are aware of the dreadful environmental consequences of flying, a policy which disallows proxy voting and, instead, encourages citizens to fly across the planet in order to cast their votes, is only absolutely ridiculous. Most international observation missions do not comment on ‘the elephant in the room,’ the election system itself What’s more, many people, not least in Taiwan, tend to divide the world into those jurisdictions – like Taiwan – which are ‘democratic’, and those which are not – like China. This report suggests....
Monday, January 6, 2020 Hong Kong's main daily, the South China Morning Post, published this on 5th:
Tuesday, December 24, 2019 April Fools: the MPs' indicative votes indicated nothing. So Representation has just published: ttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00344893.2019.1696393
Sunday, December 8, 2019 In consensus voting, we seldom if ever choose only one individual/policy option. Compromise is the key. So we always
