deborda.org

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

Navigation

About us

I'm on my way to China again. And 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.

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

Jan192023

2023-1 The Ecologist

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Aiming for COP28, this has just been published:

https://theecologist.org/2023/jan/19/climate-covid-and-consensus

Deborda | Comments Off |

Monday

Sep262022

2022-15 China (see also 2021-18)

Monday, September 26, 2022

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Newsletter of the Global Think Tank Network for Democracy Studies

Click to read more ...

Deborda | Comments Off |

Saturday

Sep242022

2022-14 Ukraine (see also 2022-5 and '22-2)

Saturday, September 24, 2022

https://politicalreform.ie/2022/09/18/ukraine-are-we-also-at-fault/ is a PSAI blog. And this was in the Irish News, 12 Sept: Mikhail Gorbachev, "a man we...

Click to read more ...

Deborda | Comments Off |

Wednesday

Sep072022

2022-13 The Punters' Guide: a vimeo

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

https://player.vimeo.com/video/745951914?h=a3d8147234&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 See also 2023-2, 2022-13, '22-8 and '22-1.

Deborda | Comments Off |

Monday

Aug152022

2022-12 The Punters' Guide, 'book launches'

Monday, August 15, 2022

London launch, 6th Oct: Unlock Democracy: https://youtu.be/Q0rhJ3_50iI

Dublin launch, 12th, Mansion House

Waterford, 14th, PSAI conference

Belfast launch, 26th, Linen Hall Library

Paris, 3rd Nov, American University

Strasbourg, 8th, World Forum for Democracy, Council of Europe

Prague launch, 15th, IH21: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52qBbzOcerw

2022-11 The Punters' Guide to Democracy

Monday, August 15, 2022

This book discusses multiple ways of voting in a democratic system and explains the basis of more consensual politics. Without delving into too much technical argument or too many mathematical examples, it aims to show that binary decision-making is blunt, primitive, divisive, and sometimes inaccurate

Click to read more ...

Deborda | Comments Off |

Thursday

Jul282022

2022-10 Ukraine peace rally in Belfast

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Sunday, 24th July. I said: Mariupol. The name...

Click to read more ...

Deborda | Comments Off |

Thursday

Jun092022

2022-9 False-flags, Ukraine, Bosnia, Ossetia

Thursday, June 9, 2022

PRESS RELEASE on 9.6.2022: REFERENDUMS… OR ‘FALSE FLAGS’? “The people will determine

Click to read more ...

Deborda | Comments Off |

Tuesday

May312022

2022-8 The Punters' Guide to Democracy

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

The Punters' Guide to Democracy, (Springer, Heidelberg), is due to be published later this summer.

1 “…the West's relentless pursuit of binary voting… has been a cause of countless tragedies. This book is brilliant: political controversies should rarely if ever be 'resolved' by majority vote.” Arend Lijphart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, USA.

2 “[for] those who do not believe in a black-or-white world… a very important and extremely timely contribution…” Věra Stojarová, Associate Professor of Political Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

3 “Peter’s challenge to the binary “win-lose” approach is urgently necessary, as is his proposal for an eminently more reasonable, accountable, and participatory system.” Dr. Valery Perry, Democratization Policy Council, Sarajevo, Bosnia.

4 “…the preferential points vote… would be the more accurate way to make decisions, and the consequences far more peaceful.” Lord Boyce, House of Lords, Westminster, Britain.

5 “He builds a case for a specific version of preferential procedure, not only for elections, but for decision making as well.” Hannu Nurmi, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Turku, Finland.

6 “A particularly strong plea in favour of voting procedures… which go far beyond the usual 'yes or no' ballots. [He uses] an alert prose and a wealth of illuminating and easily graspable examples.” Maurice Salles, Emeritus Professor, Université de Caen, France. (See 2022-1.)

Deborda | Comments Off |

Tuesday

May102022

2022-7 NI Assembly elections

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Parts of the NI ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS on 5.5.2022 were horrible. Inter alia, the rules for the conduct of elections in NI allow: + (a) political-party activists to...

Click to read more ...

Deborda | Comments Off |

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

I'm on my way to China again. And 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.

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

Vienna TEDx Talk - October 2017