Re: supermajority options
>>"John" == John H Robinson, IV <jhriv@ucsd.edu> writes:
John> http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:4wJT-1c0FykC:www.democ.uci.edu/democ/papers/McGann02.pdf+condorcet+supermajority&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Interesting. However, that paper makes a number of assumptions
May (1952) shows that majority rule is the only positively
responsive voting rule that satisfies anonymity (all voters are
treated equally) and neutrality (all alternatives are treated
equally). If we use a system other than majority rule, then we
lose either anonymity or neutrality.
Eh? this obviously does not apply. Additionally, the core of
the argument is about bargaining powers, which apply to places like
traditionally elected bodies (parliaments, etc), where people whose
votes can't be bargained for to reach super majority lose out. This
is by no means relevant to Debian's voting process. Additionally,
the minorities are hurt position presupposes the minorities are the
minorites in the US population, and the status quo is bad for them;
this is arguably not relevant in the case of debian.
Secondly, it says that supermajorities are biased with
reference to the status quo -- which is, indeed, desired: we do
put supermajority requirements only on documents and decisions where
the status quo was arrived after a great deal of delibration, and has
been adopted by the full membership, and indeed, forms the core of
the project. The status Quo, in the case of the DFSG+SC, defines what
our philosophies are, and they tread a fine line between extreme
positions on either side. Being biased towards what has lead to the
creation of a fine OS, and seems to have caused little (in my
opinion) in the way of a crisis, seems to be a fine thing.
The paper has failed to consvince me. It also deals with
concepts of economic efficiency, and whether filibusters in the US
senate have been used to oppose civil liberty laws, and thus do not
protect minorities.
manoj
--
Somewhat alarmed at the continued growth of the number of employees
on the Department of Agriculture payroll in 1962, Michigan Republican
Robert Griffin proposed an amendment to the farm bill so that "the
total number of employees in the Department of Agriculture at no time
exceeds the number of farmers in America." Bill Adler, "The
Washington Wits"
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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