Most problems and edge-cases in a voting (or preference aggregation or utility aggregation) mechanism are dwarfed by the fundamental incorrect assumption of equal weight per person for any decision. In reality, there are orders of magnitude difference in how much a given choice will impact different people, and in how strongly different people care about their choices.
Once you’ve decided to ignore that, you’re well into the world where legitimacy (acceptance of the result with minimal disruption) is your goal, not optimization of preferences. And for this, there is a very strong advantage to the status quo.
I’m not sure “should work” is a phrase I’d use for this topic (topic being “large-group decision-making”). I’m kind of shocked anything works at all, and I suspect it’s mostly because voting isn’t the main process for deciding anything important.
If legitimacy/acceptance is the main criterion for a voting system, the first things to “fix” are not the geeky “better aggregation of private preferences” mechanisms that we love so much. The problems in trust come from the ludicrous deviations that multi-level aggregation (electoral college and arbitrary geographic divisions) and indirection/bundling of issues (voting for people or parties rather than issues) cause/reveal.
Most problems and edge-cases in a voting (or preference aggregation or utility aggregation) mechanism are dwarfed by the fundamental incorrect assumption of equal weight per person for any decision. In reality, there are orders of magnitude difference in how much a given choice will impact different people, and in how strongly different people care about their choices.
Once you’ve decided to ignore that, you’re well into the world where legitimacy (acceptance of the result with minimal disruption) is your goal, not optimization of preferences. And for this, there is a very strong advantage to the status quo.
Can you say some about how you think this should work?
I’m not sure “should work” is a phrase I’d use for this topic (topic being “large-group decision-making”). I’m kind of shocked anything works at all, and I suspect it’s mostly because voting isn’t the main process for deciding anything important.
If legitimacy/acceptance is the main criterion for a voting system, the first things to “fix” are not the geeky “better aggregation of private preferences” mechanisms that we love so much. The problems in trust come from the ludicrous deviations that multi-level aggregation (electoral college and arbitrary geographic divisions) and indirection/bundling of issues (voting for people or parties rather than issues) cause/reveal.