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I'm on my way to China again.  And here's the blog: https://deborda.substack.com/p/debordaabroad2

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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.

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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!

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.

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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.

 

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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. 

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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!

deborda.gif

Vienna TEDx Talk - October 2017

Here's the YouTube,  the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).

Wednesday
Dec202017

2017-18 Green European Foundation

DateWednesday, December 20, 2017

BEYOND MAJORITY RULE: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/beyond-majority-rule-electoral-systems-for-inclusive-politics/

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Saturday
Dec162017

2017-17 Austria

DateSaturday, December 16, 2017

The extremist FPÖ is now in government. Only because Austians (like so many others) use majority voting and believe in majority rule... the cause of so much bitterness and bloodshed. Germany also believes, and is in a state of impasse, while the Czech Republic has settled - if that's the right word - for a minority administration. Because they believe in majority rule? See 2017-13.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Saturday
Dec162017

2017-16 A Majority of One

DateSaturday, December 16, 2017

The US Senate is now down to a majority of just one. Meanwhile, in the UK, the 'rebels' defy the whips and Brexit will be softer. But do terms like 'rebel' and 'whip' really belong to a democracy? 

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Tuesday
Dec052017

2017-15 TEDx presentation in Vienna 2017

DateTuesday, December 5, 2017

Here's the YouTube and here's the PowerPoint, and text of the speech (more or less).

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Thursday
Nov162017

2017-14 Brexit, 'hard' or 'soft'

DateThursday, November 16, 2017

The first Brexit referendum should have been multi-optional! As we argued in 2016-1. If it had been, "remain in the EU" would probably have won. (See the TEDx talk in 2017-15.) Any second referendum should also be multi-optional. Letter in IT.  After all, the binary ballot of June 2016 only initiated yet another binary debate: is it to be a 'soft' or a 'hard' Brexit?

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Sunday
Oct292017

2017-13 Dutch courage

DateSunday, October 29, 2017

Bingo, the Netherlands now have a government, after (only) 225 days.  A Dutch record; the world record is still held by Belgium, at 451 days.  Here's the graph.  With a matrix vote, it could all haver been done in less than a week. See 2016-16 and 2016-10.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Saturday
Oct142017

2017-12 Catalonia

DateSaturday, October 14, 2017

"Let's recover our common sense," said the white-clothed folk in Catalonia/Spain. So let's have preferential voting: a letter in The Guardian.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference2 References |
Tuesday
Oct102017

2017-11 Citizens' Assembly 

DateTuesday, October 10, 2017

The Citizens' Assembly prefers to be consistently inconsistent.   https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/voting-system-of-citizens-assembly-may-distort-says-analysis-1.3248530    See 2016-14.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Friday
Oct062017

2017-10 Problems of political patronage 

DateFriday, October 6, 2017

Ministers support Theresa May.  Well they would, wouldn't they.  If, however, she did not select, but MPs elected the cabinet... our latest press release.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Wednesday
Sep132017

2017-9 Whipped Votes and Fake News

DateWednesday, September 13, 2017

x% of Party A, and x'% of Party B, vote 'for'; y% of A and y'% of B vote 'against. A > B, so A has the majority, applies the whip, and wins. But maybe y + y' > x + x'.  Hence this press release in the Irish News of 8th Sept.  See also 2017-1 and 2016-12.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
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