deborda.org

The de Borda Institute, after Jean-Charles de Borda, 1733-99

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About us

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.

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!

Thursday

Nov172016

2016-14 Ireland, the 8th amendment

Thursday, November 17, 2016

This is our submission to the Citizens' Assembly

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28 References |

Sunday

Nov132016

2016-13 Canada

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Canada is reviewing its electoral system, so hopefully they will use multi-option voting and include QBS. And then maybe the US will follow suit? See 2016-12.

Oh dear, Trudeau has changed his mind: Canada is not reviewing its electoral system. A superb chance to influence the US and the latter's crazy system has been lost!

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7 References |

Friday

Nov112016

2016-12 Brexit and Trump

Friday, November 11, 2016

Under majority rule, a win for populism - Trump, Le Pen, whoever - means democracy has failed. The need for a more consensual polity could not be greater! Hence this press release, next this letter in The Guardian, 11th Nov, and then these analyses of the US election and Trump, what a silly, dangerous nonsense and if only there had been at least some PR. (See also 2016-9.)

Brexit. The argument now is not 'remain' v 'leave', but another dichotomy - (of course) - 'soft' v 'hard'. These two adjectives also described the split in the All Russian Congress of Social Democrat, in London in 1903. They voted, binary - (again of course, just like us). The 'hard' wing won, by 19 to 17, with 3 abstentions. (So no side had 50%.) Nevertheless, Lenin called his side the majority, bolshinstvo, and its members the Bolsheviks. And the losers, the minority, menshinstvo, were the Mensheviks. Will history repeat itself? Will the brexiteers now split?

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2 References |

Thursday

Nov032016

2016-11 Mosul

Thursday, November 3, 2016

The right of self-determination is usually interpreted to be by a majoritty vote. You choose your border, adjusting as necesary to ensure you have a majority, and then maybe you have a referendum. The rut started in Northern Ireland - the border in 1920, the poll in 1973. Then came the Balkans, the Caucasus, East Timor and South Sudan, i.e., yet more violence, everywhere. If various bits of Iraq like Mosul or Kirkuk are to suffer the same fate, or Kashmir, or Taiwan and then Xīnjiāng, or some Moslem/Christian states in Nigeria or similar parts of the CAR or various regions in the DRC - the list goes on and on - God help us!

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3 References |

Saturday

Oct292016

2016-10 Spain, more majoritarian nonsense...

Saturday, October 29, 2016

313 days of argument and bickering to form a majority government; they fail; OK, a minority administration will have to do. Meanwhile, the West argues for Syria and Ukraine to have power-sharing. See 'The Matrix Vote' in right-hand column. See 2016-5.

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1 Reference |

Saturday

Jun252016

2016-9 David Cameron, the 3 'whiches'.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

EU - wrong question gets wrong answer. There's a letter in The Guardian (7th Oct), and this critique of brexit, David Cameron and the three 'whiches' which was published in Brussels and London.

http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/david-cameron-and-the-three-whiches/

The UK referendum was bound to be 'Leave', as predicted in this press release of 5.2.2016, and this article of November, 2015. So hence https://www.opendemocracy.net, this letter in the local press, a further letter from Phil Kearney to the Dublin press (but unpublished), and a posting on Slugger O'Toole. See also 2016-6.

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5 References |

Thursday

May192016

2016-8 NI - dodgy elections

Thursday, May 19, 2016

A prediction: PR-STV counts are sometimes askew: in Newsletter of May 4th, suggested the count could be odd.

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/pr-stv-is-a-good-vote-system-but-its-count-rules-need-examined-1-7364452

And sure enough, it was. So hence this correspondence today.

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10 References |

Tuesday

May102016

2016-7 BBC, Radio 4, at last!

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

John Humphrys, on Today, 2nd May. (Scottish) referendums: "the realm of the absurd." So will the BBC, at last, talk about multi-option voting?

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10 References |

Tuesday

Apr262016

2016-6 Scotland. The question was a fix!

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Scottish Affairs has just published this review of Scotland's 2014 referendum. See also 2016-11, 2014-12, 2013-15, 2012-13/10/1, 2011-1.

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6 References |

Monday

Apr252016

2016-5 Ireland: Let the Dáil elect a Govt.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Perfect timing again. The outcome of the Irish Times/DCU/deBorda/CiviQ matrix vote experiment on 23rd April, could hardly have been better: the result was proportional, most of the ministers were appointed to departments for which they were appropriate and, if it had been for real, it would have been the most gender-balanced Dáil ever! So the Irish Times published this opinion piece on 22nd - http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/opinion-there-is-a-better-way-to-form-a-government-than-50-days-of-chaos-1.2619525 - and this report of the event on 25th: See also 2016-3.