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PAR is awesome part 1/2: FBC?

JQ
Jameson Quinn
Fri, Nov 11, 2016 11:44 AM

Here's the definition of PAR
http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Prefer_Accept_Reject_voting again:

  1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is
    "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates, and
    "Accept" otherwise.
  2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, are
    disqualified
    , unless that would disqualify all candidates.
  3. Each voter gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they
    prefer; and any voter who gave no such points (because their preferred
    candidates were all eliminated) gives 1 point to each non-eliminated
    candidate they accept. The winner is the candidate with the most
    points.

Note that since originally proposing this method, the only substantive
change to the process above has been a slight adjustment in the default
rule: the part where default is "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly
reject any candidates.

As previously discussed, this method does not meet FBC. For instance,
consider the following "non-disqualifying center-squeeze" scenario:

35: AX>B
10: B>A
10: B>AC
5: B>C
40: C>B

None are eliminated, so C wins with 40 points (against 35, 25, 35 for A, B,
and X). However, if 6 of the first group of voters strategically betrayed
their true favorite A, the situation would be as follows:

29: AX>B
6: X>B
10: B>A
10: B>AC
5: B>C
40: C>B

Now, A is eliminated with 51% rejection; so B (the CW) wins.

Is this violation of FBC a serious defect in the system? I would argue it
isn't. In the above scenario pair, candidates A, B, and C are the clear
frontrunners, with X being merely a distraction. In that context, the 10
B>AC voters are clearly not using their full voting power. If they voted
their true preferences, whether those are B>A>C or B>C>A, then either A or
C would have to be eliminated, and B would win.

More generally, one can "rescue" FBC-like behavior for this system by
restricting the domain to voting scenarios which meet the following three
restrictions:

Each candidate either comes from one of no more than 3 "ideological
categories", or is "nonviable".
No "nonviable" candidate is preferred by more than 25%.
Each voter rejects at least one of the 3 "ideological categories" (that is,
rejects all candidates in that category).

If the above restrictions hold, then PAR voting would meet FBC. It is
arguably likely that real-world voting scenarios will meet the above
restrictions, except for a negligible fraction of "ideologically atypical"
voters. For instance, in the first scenario above, the three categories
would be {AX}, {B}, and {C}, and the B>AC voters, who violate the third
restriction, would probably actually vote either B>A or B>C, which wouldn't
violate that restriction.

Also, note that in any scenario where PAR fails FBC for some small group,
there is a rational strategy for some superset of that group which does not
involve betrayal. For instance, in first scenario above, if 11 of the AX>B
voters switch to >AXB, then A is eliminated without any betrayal.

If you're really concerned about FBC failure, then you can always use FBPPAR
http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/FBPPAR instead:

  1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is
    "Accept"; except that for voters who do not explicitly reject any
    candidates, default is "Reject". Voters can also mark a global option that
    says: "I believe that voters like me should be the first to compromise."
  2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, are
    eliminated, unless that would eliminate all candidates. If a candidate
    would have been eliminatable considering all the "prefer" votes they got on
    "compromise" ballots as "rejects", then they are considered "eager to
    compromise"
  3. The winner is the non-eliminated candidate with the highest score.
    Voters give 1 point to each candidate whom they prefer; and, if all the
    candidates they gave points to are "eager to compromise", they also give 1
    point to each candidate whom they accept.

However, I think that FBPPAR is just a theoretical curiosity. The
"compromise" option adds significant extra complexity, and would almost
never be used. I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC compliance to
be an acceptable proposal.

Other than FBC, PAR has some pretty excellent properties. It elects the CW
in most realistic chicken dilemma scenarios, giving a strong Nash
equilibrium with naive/honest/strategyless ballots, as shown in the
Tennessee example. It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken dilemma
scenario, naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a "slippery slope"
(though of course, this is no longer a strong Nash equilibrium).

PAR voting passes the majority criterion, the mutual majority criterion,
Local independence of irrelevant alternatives (under the assumption of
fixed "honest" ratings for each voter for each candidate), Independence of
clone alternatives, Monotonicity, polytime, and resolvability.

There are a few criteria for which it does not pass as such, but where it
passes related but weaker criteria. These include:

  • It fails Independence of irrelevant alternatives, but passes Local
    independence of irrelevant alternatives.
  • It fails the Condorcet criterion, but for any set of voters such that
    an honest majority Condorcet winner exists, there always exists a strong
    equilibrium set of strictly semi-honest ballots that elects that CW. (Note
    that though this is in some sense a "weaker" criterion, it is actually not
    met by most strictly-ranked Condorcet systems!)
  • It fails the participation criterion but passes the semi-honest
    participation criterion.
  • It fails O(N) summability, but can get that summability with two-pass
    tallying (first determine who's eliminated, then retally).
  • It may pass the majority Condorcet loser criterion (?). If not, it
    certainly passes some weakened version.
  • It fails the later-no-help criterion, but passes if there is at least
    one candidate above the elimination thresholds (which is always true, for
    instance, if there are some three candidates who get 3 different ratings on
    every ballot).

It fails the consistency criterion, reversibility, the majority loser
criterion, the Strategy-free criterion, and later-no-harm.

All-in-all, I think it's a great method: reasonably simple and intuitive,
passes FBC on a restricted but essentially-realistic domain, handles
center-squeeze and CD with naive ballots, and cloneproof.

Here's the definition of PAR <http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Prefer_Accept_Reject_voting> again: 1. *Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate.* Default is "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates, and "Accept" otherwise. 2. *Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, are disqualified*, unless that would disqualify all candidates. 3. Each voter gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they prefer; and any voter who gave no such points (because their preferred candidates were all eliminated) gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they accept. *The winner is the candidate with the most points.* Note that since originally proposing this method, the only substantive change to the process above has been a slight adjustment in the default rule: the part where default is "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates. As previously discussed, this method does not meet FBC. For instance, consider the following "non-disqualifying center-squeeze" scenario: 35: AX>B 10: B>A 10: B>AC 5: B>C 40: C>B None are eliminated, so C wins with 40 points (against 35, 25, 35 for A, B, and X). However, if 6 of the first group of voters strategically betrayed their true favorite A, the situation would be as follows: 29: AX>B 6: X>B 10: B>A 10: B>AC 5: B>C 40: C>B Now, A is eliminated with 51% rejection; so B (the CW) wins. Is this violation of FBC a serious defect in the system? I would argue it isn't. In the above scenario pair, candidates A, B, and C are the clear frontrunners, with X being merely a distraction. In that context, the 10 B>AC voters are clearly not using their full voting power. If they voted their true preferences, whether those are B>A>C or B>C>A, then either A or C would have to be eliminated, and B would win. More generally, one can "rescue" FBC-like behavior for this system by restricting the domain to voting scenarios which meet the following three restrictions: Each candidate either comes from one of no more than 3 "ideological categories", or is "nonviable". No "nonviable" candidate is preferred by more than 25%. Each voter rejects at least one of the 3 "ideological categories" (that is, rejects all candidates in that category). If the above restrictions hold, then PAR voting would meet FBC. It is arguably likely that real-world voting scenarios will meet the above restrictions, except for a negligible fraction of "ideologically atypical" voters. For instance, in the first scenario above, the three categories would be {AX}, {B}, and {C}, and the B>AC voters, who violate the third restriction, would probably actually vote either B>A or B>C, which wouldn't violate that restriction. Also, note that in any scenario where PAR fails FBC for some small group, there is a rational strategy for some superset of that group which does not involve betrayal. For instance, in first scenario above, if 11 of the AX>B voters switch to >AXB, then A is eliminated without any betrayal. If you're really concerned about FBC failure, then you can always use FBPPAR <http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/FBPPAR> instead: 1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is "Accept"; except that for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates, default is "Reject". Voters can also mark a global option that says: "I believe that voters like me should be the first to compromise." 2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, are eliminated, unless that would eliminate all candidates. If a candidate would have been eliminatable considering all the "prefer" votes they got on "compromise" ballots as "rejects", then they are considered "eager to compromise" 3. The winner is the non-eliminated candidate with the highest score. Voters give 1 point to each candidate whom they prefer; and, if all the candidates they gave points to are "eager to compromise", they also give 1 point to each candidate whom they accept. However, I think that FBPPAR is just a theoretical curiosity. The "compromise" option adds significant extra complexity, and would almost never be used. I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC compliance to be an acceptable proposal. Other than FBC, PAR has some pretty excellent properties. It elects the CW in most realistic chicken dilemma scenarios, giving a strong Nash equilibrium with naive/honest/strategyless ballots, as shown in the Tennessee example. It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken dilemma scenario, naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a "slippery slope" (though of course, this is no longer a strong Nash equilibrium). PAR voting passes the majority criterion, the mutual majority criterion, Local independence of irrelevant alternatives (under the assumption of fixed "honest" ratings for each voter for each candidate), Independence of clone alternatives, Monotonicity, polytime, and resolvability. There are a few criteria for which it does not pass as such, but where it passes related but weaker criteria. These include: - It fails Independence of irrelevant alternatives, but passes Local independence of irrelevant alternatives. - It fails the Condorcet criterion, but for any set of voters such that an honest majority Condorcet winner exists, there always exists a strong equilibrium set of strictly semi-honest ballots that elects that CW. (Note that though this is in some sense a "weaker" criterion, it is actually not met by most strictly-ranked Condorcet systems!) - It fails the participation criterion but passes the semi-honest participation criterion. - It fails O(N) summability, but can get that summability with two-pass tallying (first determine who's eliminated, then retally). - It may pass the majority Condorcet loser criterion (?). If not, it certainly passes some weakened version. - It fails the later-no-help criterion, but passes if there is at least one candidate above the elimination thresholds (which is always true, for instance, if there are some three candidates who get 3 different ratings on every ballot). It fails the consistency criterion, reversibility, the majority loser criterion, the Strategy-free criterion, and later-no-harm. All-in-all, I think it's a great method: reasonably simple and intuitive, passes FBC on a restricted but essentially-realistic domain, handles center-squeeze and CD with naive ballots, and cloneproof.
JQ
Jameson Quinn
Fri, Nov 11, 2016 2:24 PM

Whoops. When I stated that PAR meets FBC on a restricted domain, I forgot
to stipulate that one of the restrictions is that there should be no honest
Condorcet cycles. I also didn't state that the voters should all have one
ideological stripe for which they reject none of the candidates.

2016-11-11 6:44 GMT-05:00 Jameson Quinn jameson.quinn@gmail.com:

Here's the definition of PAR
http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Prefer_Accept_Reject_voting again:

1. *Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate.* Default is
"Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates, and
"Accept" otherwise.
2. *Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer,
are disqualified*, unless that would disqualify all candidates.
3. Each voter gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they
prefer; and any voter who gave no such points (because their preferred
candidates were all eliminated) gives 1 point to each non-eliminated
candidate they accept. *The winner is the candidate with the most
points.*

Note that since originally proposing this method, the only substantive
change to the process above has been a slight adjustment in the default
rule: the part where default is "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly
reject any candidates.

As previously discussed, this method does not meet FBC. For instance,
consider the following "non-disqualifying center-squeeze" scenario:

35: AX>B
10: B>A
10: B>AC
5: B>C
40: C>B

None are eliminated, so C wins with 40 points (against 35, 25, 35 for A,
B, and X). However, if 6 of the first group of voters strategically
betrayed their true favorite A, the situation would be as follows:

29: AX>B
6: X>B
10: B>A
10: B>AC
5: B>C
40: C>B

Now, A is eliminated with 51% rejection; so B (the CW) wins.

Is this violation of FBC a serious defect in the system? I would argue it
isn't. In the above scenario pair, candidates A, B, and C are the clear
frontrunners, with X being merely a distraction. In that context, the 10
B>AC voters are clearly not using their full voting power. If they voted
their true preferences, whether those are B>A>C or B>C>A, then either A or
C would have to be eliminated, and B would win.

More generally, one can "rescue" FBC-like behavior for this system by
restricting the domain to voting scenarios which meet the following three
restrictions:

Each candidate either comes from one of no more than 3 "ideological
categories", or is "nonviable".
No "nonviable" candidate is preferred by more than 25%.
Each voter rejects at least one of the 3 "ideological categories" (that
is, rejects all candidates in that category).

If the above restrictions hold, then PAR voting would meet FBC. It is
arguably likely that real-world voting scenarios will meet the above
restrictions, except for a negligible fraction of "ideologically atypical"
voters. For instance, in the first scenario above, the three categories
would be {AX}, {B}, and {C}, and the B>AC voters, who violate the third
restriction, would probably actually vote either B>A or B>C, which wouldn't
violate that restriction.

Also, note that in any scenario where PAR fails FBC for some small group,
there is a rational strategy for some superset of that group which does not
involve betrayal. For instance, in first scenario above, if 11 of the AX>B
voters switch to >AXB, then A is eliminated without any betrayal.

If you're really concerned about FBC failure, then you can always use
FBPPAR http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/FBPPAR instead:

1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is
"Accept"; except that for voters who do not explicitly reject any
candidates, default is "Reject". Voters can also mark a global option that
says: "I believe that voters like me should be the first to compromise."
2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, are
eliminated, unless that would eliminate all candidates. If a candidate
would have been eliminatable considering all the "prefer" votes they got on
"compromise" ballots as "rejects", then they are considered "eager to
compromise"
3. The winner is the non-eliminated candidate with the highest score.
Voters give 1 point to each candidate whom they prefer; and, if all the
candidates they gave points to are "eager to compromise", they also give 1
point to each candidate whom they accept.

However, I think that FBPPAR is just a theoretical curiosity. The
"compromise" option adds significant extra complexity, and would almost
never be used. I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC compliance to
be an acceptable proposal.

Other than FBC, PAR has some pretty excellent properties. It elects the CW
in most realistic chicken dilemma scenarios, giving a strong Nash
equilibrium with naive/honest/strategyless ballots, as shown in the
Tennessee example. It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken dilemma
scenario, naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a "slippery slope"
(though of course, this is no longer a strong Nash equilibrium).

PAR voting passes the majority criterion, the mutual majority criterion,
Local independence of irrelevant alternatives (under the assumption of
fixed "honest" ratings for each voter for each candidate), Independence of
clone alternatives, Monotonicity, polytime, and resolvability.

There are a few criteria for which it does not pass as such, but where it
passes related but weaker criteria. These include:

- It fails Independence of irrelevant alternatives, but passes Local
independence of irrelevant alternatives.
- It fails the Condorcet criterion, but for any set of voters such
that an honest majority Condorcet winner exists, there always exists a
strong equilibrium set of strictly semi-honest ballots that elects that CW.
(Note that though this is in some sense a "weaker" criterion, it is
actually not met by most strictly-ranked Condorcet systems!)
- It fails the participation criterion but passes the semi-honest
participation criterion.
- It fails O(N) summability, but can get that summability with
two-pass tallying (first determine who's eliminated, then retally).
- It may pass the majority Condorcet loser criterion (?). If not, it
certainly passes some weakened version.
- It fails the later-no-help criterion, but passes if there is at
least one candidate above the elimination thresholds (which is always true,
for instance, if there are some three candidates who get 3 different
ratings on every ballot).

It fails the consistency criterion, reversibility, the majority loser
criterion, the Strategy-free criterion, and later-no-harm.

All-in-all, I think it's a great method: reasonably simple and intuitive,
passes FBC on a restricted but essentially-realistic domain, handles
center-squeeze and CD with naive ballots, and cloneproof.

Whoops. When I stated that PAR meets FBC on a restricted domain, I forgot to stipulate that one of the restrictions is that there should be no honest Condorcet cycles. I also didn't state that the voters should all have one ideological stripe for which they reject none of the candidates. 2016-11-11 6:44 GMT-05:00 Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn@gmail.com>: > Here's the definition of PAR > <http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Prefer_Accept_Reject_voting> again: > > > 1. *Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate.* Default is > "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates, and > "Accept" otherwise. > 2. *Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, > are disqualified*, unless that would disqualify all candidates. > 3. Each voter gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they > prefer; and any voter who gave no such points (because their preferred > candidates were all eliminated) gives 1 point to each non-eliminated > candidate they accept. *The winner is the candidate with the most > points.* > > > Note that since originally proposing this method, the only substantive > change to the process above has been a slight adjustment in the default > rule: the part where default is "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly > reject any candidates. > > As previously discussed, this method does not meet FBC. For instance, > consider the following "non-disqualifying center-squeeze" scenario: > > 35: AX>B > 10: B>A > 10: B>AC > 5: B>C > 40: C>B > > None are eliminated, so C wins with 40 points (against 35, 25, 35 for A, > B, and X). However, if 6 of the first group of voters strategically > betrayed their true favorite A, the situation would be as follows: > > 29: AX>B > 6: X>B > 10: B>A > 10: B>AC > 5: B>C > 40: C>B > > Now, A is eliminated with 51% rejection; so B (the CW) wins. > > Is this violation of FBC a serious defect in the system? I would argue it > isn't. In the above scenario pair, candidates A, B, and C are the clear > frontrunners, with X being merely a distraction. In that context, the 10 > B>AC voters are clearly not using their full voting power. If they voted > their true preferences, whether those are B>A>C or B>C>A, then either A or > C would have to be eliminated, and B would win. > > More generally, one can "rescue" FBC-like behavior for this system by > restricting the domain to voting scenarios which meet the following three > restrictions: > > Each candidate either comes from one of no more than 3 "ideological > categories", or is "nonviable". > No "nonviable" candidate is preferred by more than 25%. > Each voter rejects at least one of the 3 "ideological categories" (that > is, rejects all candidates in that category). > > If the above restrictions hold, then PAR voting would meet FBC. It is > arguably likely that real-world voting scenarios will meet the above > restrictions, except for a negligible fraction of "ideologically atypical" > voters. For instance, in the first scenario above, the three categories > would be {AX}, {B}, and {C}, and the B>AC voters, who violate the third > restriction, would probably actually vote either B>A or B>C, which wouldn't > violate that restriction. > > Also, note that in any scenario where PAR fails FBC for some small group, > there is a rational strategy for some superset of that group which does not > involve betrayal. For instance, in first scenario above, if 11 of the AX>B > voters switch to >AXB, then A is eliminated without any betrayal. > > If you're really concerned about FBC failure, then you can always use > FBPPAR <http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/FBPPAR> instead: > > > 1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is > "Accept"; except that for voters who do not explicitly reject any > candidates, default is "Reject". Voters can also mark a global option that > says: "I believe that voters like me should be the first to compromise." > 2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, are > eliminated, unless that would eliminate all candidates. If a candidate > would have been eliminatable considering all the "prefer" votes they got on > "compromise" ballots as "rejects", then they are considered "eager to > compromise" > 3. The winner is the non-eliminated candidate with the highest score. > Voters give 1 point to each candidate whom they prefer; and, if all the > candidates they gave points to are "eager to compromise", they also give 1 > point to each candidate whom they accept. > > > However, I think that FBPPAR is just a theoretical curiosity. The > "compromise" option adds significant extra complexity, and would almost > never be used. I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC compliance to > be an acceptable proposal. > > Other than FBC, PAR has some pretty excellent properties. It elects the CW > in most realistic chicken dilemma scenarios, giving a strong Nash > equilibrium with naive/honest/strategyless ballots, as shown in the > Tennessee example. It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken dilemma > scenario, naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a "slippery slope" > (though of course, this is no longer a strong Nash equilibrium). > > PAR voting passes the majority criterion, the mutual majority criterion, > Local independence of irrelevant alternatives (under the assumption of > fixed "honest" ratings for each voter for each candidate), Independence of > clone alternatives, Monotonicity, polytime, and resolvability. > > There are a few criteria for which it does not pass as such, but where it > passes related but weaker criteria. These include: > > > > - It fails Independence of irrelevant alternatives, but passes Local > independence of irrelevant alternatives. > - It fails the Condorcet criterion, but for any set of voters such > that an honest majority Condorcet winner exists, there always exists a > strong equilibrium set of strictly semi-honest ballots that elects that CW. > (Note that though this is in some sense a "weaker" criterion, it is > actually not met by most strictly-ranked Condorcet systems!) > - It fails the participation criterion but passes the semi-honest > participation criterion. > - It fails O(N) summability, but can get that summability with > two-pass tallying (first determine who's eliminated, then retally). > - It may pass the majority Condorcet loser criterion (?). If not, it > certainly passes some weakened version. > - It fails the later-no-help criterion, but passes if there is at > least one candidate above the elimination thresholds (which is always true, > for instance, if there are some three candidates who get 3 different > ratings on every ballot). > > > It fails the consistency criterion, reversibility, the majority loser > criterion, the Strategy-free criterion, and later-no-harm. > > All-in-all, I think it's a great method: reasonably simple and intuitive, > passes FBC on a restricted but essentially-realistic domain, handles > center-squeeze and CD with naive ballots, and cloneproof. >
C
C.Benham
Fri, Nov 11, 2016 5:50 PM

On 11/11/2016 10:14 PM, Jameson Quinn wrote:

I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC compliance to be an
acceptable proposal.

I'm afraid I can't see any value in "close enough" to FBC compliance.
The point of FBC is to give an absolute guarantee to (possibly uninformed
and not strategically savvy)  greater-evil fearing voters.

It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken dilemma scenario,
naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a "slippery slope" (though
of course, this is no longer a strong Nash equilibrium).

How do you have a "chicken dilemma scenario" with
"naive/honest/strategyless ballots" ?

35: C >> A=B
33: A>B >> C
32: B >> A=C  (sincere is B>A >> C)

In this CD scenario your method elects B  in violation of the CD criterion.

Since you are apparently now content to do without FBC compliance  and
you imply that electing the CW is a good thing,
why don't you advocate a method that meets the Condorcet criterion?

What is wrong with Smith//Approval?  Or Forest's nearly equivalent Max
Covered Approval?

Chris Benham

On 11/11/2016 10:14 PM, Jameson Quinn wrote:

Here's the definition of PAR
http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Prefer_Accept_Reject_voting again:

  1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is
    "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates,
    and "Accept" otherwise.
  2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer,
    are disqualified
    , unless that would disqualify all candidates.
  3. Each voter gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they
    prefer; and any voter who gave no such points (because their
    preferred candidates were all eliminated) gives 1 point to each
    non-eliminated candidate they accept. The winner is the candidate
    with the most points.

Note that since originally proposing this method, the only substantive
change to the process above has been a slight adjustment in the
default rule: the part where default is "Reject" for voters who do not
explicitly reject any candidates.

As previously discussed, this method does not meet FBC. For instance,
consider the following "non-disqualifying center-squeeze" scenario:

35: AX>B
10: B>A
10: B>AC
5: B>C
40: C>B

None are eliminated, so C wins with 40 points (against 35, 25, 35 for
A, B, and X). However, if 6 of the first group of voters strategically
betrayed their true favorite A, the situation would be as follows:

29: AX>B
6: X>B
10: B>A
10: B>AC
5: B>C
40: C>B

Now, A is eliminated with 51% rejection; so B (the CW) wins.

Is this violation of FBC a serious defect in the system? I would argue
it isn't. In the above scenario pair, candidates A, B, and C are the
clear frontrunners, with X being merely a distraction. In that
context, the 10 B>AC voters are clearly not using their full voting
power. If they voted their true preferences, whether those are B>A>C
or B>C>A, then either A or C would have to be eliminated, and B would win.

More generally, one can "rescue" FBC-like behavior for this system by
restricting the domain to voting scenarios which meet the following
three restrictions:

Each candidate either comes from one of no more than 3 "ideological
categories", or is "nonviable".
No "nonviable" candidate is preferred by more than 25%.
Each voter rejects at least one of the 3 "ideological categories"
(that is, rejects all candidates in that category).

If the above restrictions hold, then PAR voting would meet FBC. It is
arguably likely that real-world voting scenarios will meet the above
restrictions, except for a negligible fraction of "ideologically
atypical" voters. For instance, in the first scenario above, the three
categories would be {AX}, {B}, and {C}, and the B>AC voters, who
violate the third restriction, would probably actually vote either B>A
or B>C, which wouldn't violate that restriction.

Also, note that in any scenario where PAR fails FBC for some small
group, there is a rational strategy for some superset of that group
which does not involve betrayal. For instance, in first scenario
above, if 11 of the AX>B voters switch to >AXB, then A is eliminated
without any betrayal.

If you're really concerned about FBC failure, then you can always use
FBPPAR http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/FBPPAR instead:

  1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is
    "Accept"; except that for voters who do not explicitly reject any
    candidates, default is "Reject". Voters can also mark a global
    option that says: "I believe that voters like me should be the
    first to compromise."
  2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer,
    are eliminated, unless that would eliminate all candidates. If a
    candidate would have been eliminatable considering all the
    "prefer" votes they got on "compromise" ballots as "rejects", then
    they are considered "eager to compromise"
  3. The winner is the non-eliminated candidate with the highest score.
    Voters give 1 point to each candidate whom they prefer; and, if
    all the candidates they gave points to are "eager to compromise",
    they also give 1 point to each candidate whom they accept.

However, I think that FBPPAR is just a theoretical curiosity. The
"compromise" option adds significant extra complexity, and would
almost never be used. I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC
compliance to be an acceptable proposal.

Other than FBC, PAR has some pretty excellent properties. It elects
the CW in most realistic chicken dilemma scenarios, giving a strong
Nash equilibrium with naive/honest/strategyless ballots, as shown in
the Tennessee example. It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken
dilemma scenario, naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a
"slippery slope" (though of course, this is no longer a strong Nash
equilibrium).

PAR voting passes the majority criterion, the mutual majority
criterion, Local independence of irrelevant alternatives (under the
assumption of fixed "honest" ratings for each voter for each
candidate), Independence of clone alternatives, Monotonicity,
polytime, and resolvability.

There are a few criteria for which it does not pass as such, but where
it passes related but weaker criteria. These include:

  • It fails Independence of irrelevant alternatives, but passes Local
    independence of irrelevant alternatives.
  • It fails the Condorcet criterion, but for any set of voters such
    that an honest majority Condorcet winner exists, there always
    exists a strong equilibrium set of strictly semi-honest ballots
    that elects that CW. (Note that though this is in some sense a
    "weaker" criterion, it is actually not met by most strictly-ranked
    Condorcet systems!)
  • It fails the participation criterion but passes the semi-honest
    participation criterion.
  • It fails O(N) summability, but can get that summability with
    two-pass tallying (first determine who's eliminated, then retally).
  • It may pass the majority Condorcet loser criterion (?). If not, it
    certainly passes some weakened version.
  • It fails the later-no-help criterion, but passes if there is at
    least one candidate above the elimination thresholds (which is
    always true, for instance, if there are some three candidates who
    get 3 different ratings on every ballot).

It fails the consistency criterion, reversibility, the majority loser
criterion, the Strategy-free criterion, and later-no-harm.

All-in-all, I think it's a great method: reasonably simple and
intuitive, passes FBC on a restricted but essentially-realistic
domain, handles center-squeeze and CD with naive ballots, and cloneproof.


Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info

On 11/11/2016 10:14 PM, Jameson Quinn wrote: > I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC compliance to be an > acceptable proposal. I'm afraid I can't see any value in "close enough" to FBC compliance. The point of FBC is to give an absolute guarantee to (possibly uninformed and not strategically savvy) greater-evil fearing voters. > It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken dilemma scenario, > naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a "slippery slope" (though > of course, this is no longer a strong Nash equilibrium). How do you have a "chicken dilemma scenario" with "naive/honest/strategyless ballots" ? 35: C >> A=B 33: A>B >> C 32: B >> A=C (sincere is B>A >> C) In this CD scenario your method elects B in violation of the CD criterion. Since you are apparently now content to do without FBC compliance and you imply that electing the CW is a good thing, why don't you advocate a method that meets the Condorcet criterion? What is wrong with Smith//Approval? Or Forest's nearly equivalent Max Covered Approval? Chris Benham On 11/11/2016 10:14 PM, Jameson Quinn wrote: > Here's the definition of PAR > <http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Prefer_Accept_Reject_voting> again: > > 1. *Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate.* Default is > "Reject" for voters who do not explicitly reject any candidates, > and "Accept" otherwise. > 2. *Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, > are disqualified*, unless that would disqualify all candidates. > 3. Each voter gives 1 point to each non-eliminated candidate they > prefer; and any voter who gave no such points (because their > preferred candidates were all eliminated) gives 1 point to each > non-eliminated candidate they accept. *The winner is the candidate > with the most points.* > > > Note that since originally proposing this method, the only substantive > change to the process above has been a slight adjustment in the > default rule: the part where default is "Reject" for voters who do not > explicitly reject any candidates. > > As previously discussed, this method does not meet FBC. For instance, > consider the following "non-disqualifying center-squeeze" scenario: > > 35: AX>B > 10: B>A > 10: B>AC > 5: B>C > 40: C>B > > None are eliminated, so C wins with 40 points (against 35, 25, 35 for > A, B, and X). However, if 6 of the first group of voters strategically > betrayed their true favorite A, the situation would be as follows: > > 29: AX>B > 6: X>B > 10: B>A > 10: B>AC > 5: B>C > 40: C>B > > Now, A is eliminated with 51% rejection; so B (the CW) wins. > > Is this violation of FBC a serious defect in the system? I would argue > it isn't. In the above scenario pair, candidates A, B, and C are the > clear frontrunners, with X being merely a distraction. In that > context, the 10 B>AC voters are clearly not using their full voting > power. If they voted their true preferences, whether those are B>A>C > or B>C>A, then either A or C would have to be eliminated, and B would win. > > More generally, one can "rescue" FBC-like behavior for this system by > restricting the domain to voting scenarios which meet the following > three restrictions: > > Each candidate either comes from one of no more than 3 "ideological > categories", or is "nonviable". > No "nonviable" candidate is preferred by more than 25%. > Each voter rejects at least one of the 3 "ideological categories" > (that is, rejects all candidates in that category). > > If the above restrictions hold, then PAR voting would meet FBC. It is > arguably likely that real-world voting scenarios will meet the above > restrictions, except for a negligible fraction of "ideologically > atypical" voters. For instance, in the first scenario above, the three > categories would be {AX}, {B}, and {C}, and the B>AC voters, who > violate the third restriction, would probably actually vote either B>A > or B>C, which wouldn't violate that restriction. > > Also, note that in any scenario where PAR fails FBC for some small > group, there is a rational strategy for some superset of that group > which does not involve betrayal. For instance, in first scenario > above, if 11 of the AX>B voters switch to >AXB, then A is eliminated > without any betrayal. > > If you're really concerned about FBC failure, then you can always use > FBPPAR <http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/FBPPAR> instead: > > 1. Voters can Prefer, Accept, or Reject each candidate. Default is > "Accept"; except that for voters who do not explicitly reject any > candidates, default is "Reject". Voters can also mark a global > option that says: "I believe that voters like me should be the > first to compromise." > 2. Candidates with a majority of Reject, or with under 25% Prefer, > are eliminated, unless that would eliminate all candidates. If a > candidate would have been eliminatable considering all the > "prefer" votes they got on "compromise" ballots as "rejects", then > they are considered "eager to compromise" > 3. The winner is the non-eliminated candidate with the highest score. > Voters give 1 point to each candidate whom they prefer; and, if > all the candidates they gave points to are "eager to compromise", > they also give 1 point to each candidate whom they accept. > > > However, I think that FBPPAR is just a theoretical curiosity. The > "compromise" option adds significant extra complexity, and would > almost never be used. I think that simple PAR is close enough to FBC > compliance to be an acceptable proposal. > > Other than FBC, PAR has some pretty excellent properties. It elects > the CW in most realistic chicken dilemma scenarios, giving a strong > Nash equilibrium with naive/honest/strategyless ballots, as shown in > the Tennessee example. It elects the "correct" winner in a chicken > dilemma scenario, naive/honest/strategyless ballots, without a > "slippery slope" (though of course, this is no longer a strong Nash > equilibrium). > > PAR voting passes the majority criterion, the mutual majority > criterion, Local independence of irrelevant alternatives (under the > assumption of fixed "honest" ratings for each voter for each > candidate), Independence of clone alternatives, Monotonicity, > polytime, and resolvability. > > There are a few criteria for which it does not pass as such, but where > it passes related but weaker criteria. These include: > > > * It fails Independence of irrelevant alternatives, but passes Local > independence of irrelevant alternatives. > * It fails the Condorcet criterion, but for any set of voters such > that an honest majority Condorcet winner exists, there always > exists a strong equilibrium set of strictly semi-honest ballots > that elects that CW. (Note that though this is in some sense a > "weaker" criterion, it is actually not met by most strictly-ranked > Condorcet systems!) > * It fails the participation criterion but passes the semi-honest > participation criterion. > * It fails O(N) summability, but can get that summability with > two-pass tallying (first determine who's eliminated, then retally). > * It may pass the majority Condorcet loser criterion (?). If not, it > certainly passes some weakened version. > * It fails the later-no-help criterion, but passes if there is at > least one candidate above the elimination thresholds (which is > always true, for instance, if there are some three candidates who > get 3 different ratings on every ballot). > > > It fails the consistency criterion, reversibility, the majority loser > criterion, the Strategy-free criterion, and later-no-harm. > > All-in-all, I think it's a great method: reasonably simple and > intuitive, passes FBC on a restricted but essentially-realistic > domain, handles center-squeeze and CD with naive ballots, and cloneproof. > > > > ---- > Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info >