DeBorda Institute

Scottish referendum

Deborda — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:37:50 +0000

The de Borda submission is here.

Designing an All-Inclusive Democracy

Deborda — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:21:57 +0000

Designing an All-Inclusive Democracy, ed. Peter Emerson, Springer, 2007.

Don Saari has written a review for Social Choice and Welfare: it is on

http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/0530263282623016/fulltext.pdf

Party Politics in the Western Balkans

Deborda — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:26:51 +0000

The above book, jointly edited by Věra Stojarová and Peter Emerson, is published by Routledge.

Decision-making on the web

Deborda — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:23:17 +0000

Our latest work, the result of an experiment on decision-making conducted entirely - both debate and vote - on the web, is published by EPS. More details on

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/eps/journal/v9/n1/abs/eps200940a.html

The GOAT is a GNU. An experiment in electing an all-party coalition.

Deborda — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:36:28 +0000

On 7.10.2009, the de Borda Institute hosted an open public meeting in Dublin, to see if the Dail could elect a power-sharing cabinet, with TDs choosing not only those who would serve in government, but also the particular department in which each successful Minister would serve. The original invitation is here.

Participants were split into various groups, one each to represent FF, FG, Labour, Independents, GP and SF. And each group was given a fixed number of ballot papers, in proportion to current party strengths in the Dail: 20, 14, 5, 2, 2 and 1 respectively, a total of 44 ballots. The matrix vote is based on QBS and the MBC. So it was to everyone's advantage to submit a full ballot - i.e., to cast all their preferences - and to do so on a cross-party basis. Thus, in the simulation, groups planned strategies amongst themselves, and then negotiated deals with others.

The outcome was as follows: FF 6, FG 5, Lab 2, Ind 0, GP 1, SF 1 - a proportional, all-party, power-sharing coalition cabinet, a GNU. In other words, the matrix vote is indeed a robust voting procedure, and it all works without any resort to party labels. A full report along with the results are here.

Open letter to Michael Wills MP, Minister of State, Ministry of Juctice

Deborda — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:03:15 +0000

In the wake of the expenses scandal, many are the calls for reform of the system of governance: inter alia, there are campaigns for changes to the electoral system and reform in the House, but few if any are suggesting reform of our decision-making processes, the 2,500-year-old majority vote, the most inaccurate measure of collective opionion ever invented. Hence this open letter to the Minister

Government of National Unity

Deborda — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:46:51 +0000

The peole elect the parliament, by PR; and the parliament elects the government, by PR. Otherwise you get those crazy consequences of majoritarianism: the US Republicans hoping that Obama will fail; the UK Labour Party producing a budget of debt deisgned for only one year.

In Ireland, too, the need for parliamentary collective responibility is obvious. Hence this letter in The Irish Times, published on Wed. 22nd April.

Election of Green Party Cathaoirleach - an analysis of the MBC

Deborda — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:22:37 +0000

Irish Political Studies has just published an interesting analysis of the Modified Borda Count (or preferendum) vote, which was used in the 2007 election by the Irish Green Party/Comhaontas Glas when they elected their Cathaoirleach/chairperson. It was written by John Baker of Equality Studies in UCD, and here it is.

The warped majority

Deborda — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:07:51 +0000

An article by Peter Emerson in The Guardian on 4th March 2009 exploring the use of consensus voting in a number of real life scenarios.

Towards a More Inclusive Democracy

Deborda — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:04:18 +0000

Brno University has just published an article entitled Towards a More Inclusive Democracy, and here it is, available on http://www.cepsr.com/clanek.php?ID=334