The thing that I can imagine making theory relevant is for the vote-reform activists being in agreement on which system to strive for.
I’m amused by the irony of vote-reform activists being thwarted by an inability to pick the best result from diverse beliefs/preferences. I strongly doubt that more research on voting theory can resolve it for activists any more than it can for the public.
But perhaps I’m wrong—there’s probably some aspects of voting BOOTSTRAP theory that bears investigation. I suspect that even that falls more into social/political science than what is commonly called “voting theory”, which is more abstract and mathematical, closer to game theory.
You might be thinking of “And the loser is… Plurality Voting” which describes a 2010 voting systems conference, where Approval Voting ended up winning the approval vote. (I do wish they had had the experts vote under a bunch of different systems, but oh well.)
I’m amused by the irony of vote-reform activists being thwarted by an inability to pick the best result from diverse beliefs/preferences. I strongly doubt that more research on voting theory can resolve it for activists any more than it can for the public.
But perhaps I’m wrong—there’s probably some aspects of voting BOOTSTRAP theory that bears investigation. I suspect that even that falls more into social/political science than what is commonly called “voting theory”, which is more abstract and mathematical, closer to game theory.
I think there is a paper somewhere on which voting systems win when voted on under which voting systems by voting experts.
You might be thinking of “And the loser is… Plurality Voting” which describes a 2010 voting systems conference, where Approval Voting ended up winning the approval vote. (I do wish they had had the experts vote under a bunch of different systems, but oh well.)