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Conference rusure::math

Title:Mathematics at DEC
Moderator:RUSURE::EDP
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2083
Total number of notes:14613

1670.0. "AMM Problem 10252" by RUSURE::EDP (Always mount a scratch monkey.) Fri Oct 02 1992 12:08

    Proposed by James S. Weber, The University of Illinois, Chicago, IL.
    
    An election is to be held with V voters who will rank A alternatives. 
    It is said that alternative X is an "M-majority preference" over
    alternative Y if there are at least M voters who prefer X to Y.  A
    "voter's paradox cycle" is an ordering of the alternatives a[0], a[1],
    . . . a[A-1], a[A] = a[0] so that a[i] is preferred over a[i+1] for 0
    <= i < A.  Prove that a voter's paradox cycle can exist for M-majority
    preference if and only if AM <= V(A-1).
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1670.1HERON::BUCHANANThe was not found.Thu Oct 22 1992 16:4117
	Imagine each voter goes for one of the following A options:

	a[i] prefered to a[i+1] prefered to .... a[n] prefered to a[1]
prefered to ... a[i-1].

	Suppose the voters are distributed as evenly as possible (Monopoly
house construction rule) across the A options.   Then a[i] is prefered to
a[i+1] by all but at most ceiling(V/A) voters.   So there is an M-majority
for all M =< V - ceiling(V/A) = floor(V(A-1)/A).

	Therefore an M-majority paradox cycle can exist if AM=<V(A-1).

	On the other hand, each voter can contribute to at most A-1 of the A
desirable preferences of a[i] over a[i+1].   We need M votes for each such
preference.   So AM =< V(A-1) is necessary for an M-majority paradox cycle.

Andrew.