I’m not entirely convinced that VSE is the right approach. It’s theoretically appealing, but practical considerations, like perceptions of the voting process and public acceptance / “legitimacy” of the result, might be more important. Voters aren’t utilitarian robots.
I was aware of the simulations you mentioned but I didn’t check them in detail. I suspect that these results are very sensitive to model assumptions, such as tactical voting behaviour. But it would be interesting to see more work on VSE.
What EAs definitely shouldn’t do, in my opinion, is to spend considerable resources discrediting those alternatives to one’s own preferred system, as FairVote has repeatedly done with respect to approval voting. Much more is gained by displacing plurality than is lost by replacing it with a suboptimal alternative (for all reasonable alternatives to plurality).
I suspect that these results are very sensitive to model assumptions, such as tactical voting behaviour. But it would be interesting to see more work on VSE.
I agree with this. An approach I find promising is that of Nicolaus Tideman & Florenz Plassmann. In one study, the authors consider several different statistical models, use them to simulate actual elections, and rank the models by how best they approximate actual results. Then, in a subsequent study, the authors use the top-ranking model from their previous study to evaluate a dozen or so alternative voting rules, finding that plurality, anti-plurality, and Bucklin perform worst. As far as I’m aware, this is the only example of an attempt to assess voting rules by conducting simulations with a model that has been pre-fitted to actual election data. I believe that extending this approach may be among the most impactful research within this cause area.
I’m not entirely convinced that VSE is the right approach. It’s theoretically appealing, but practical considerations, like perceptions of the voting process and public acceptance / “legitimacy” of the result, might be more important. Voters aren’t utilitarian robots.
I was aware of the simulations you mentioned but I didn’t check them in detail. I suspect that these results are very sensitive to model assumptions, such as tactical voting behaviour. But it would be interesting to see more work on VSE.
Strongly agree with this!
I agree with this. An approach I find promising is that of Nicolaus Tideman & Florenz Plassmann. In one study, the authors consider several different statistical models, use them to simulate actual elections, and rank the models by how best they approximate actual results. Then, in a subsequent study, the authors use the top-ranking model from their previous study to evaluate a dozen or so alternative voting rules, finding that plurality, anti-plurality, and Bucklin perform worst. As far as I’m aware, this is the only example of an attempt to assess voting rules by conducting simulations with a model that has been pre-fitted to actual election data. I believe that extending this approach may be among the most impactful research within this cause area.