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Anonymous Voting Rules with Abstention: Weighted Voting

In: The Mathematics of Preference, Choice and Order

Author

Listed:
  • William S. Zwicker

    (Union College)

Abstract

We consider legislative voting rules that govern collective approval or disapproval of a bill or a motion, and that allow abstention (or absence) as a “middle option” distinct from a yesor novote. In contrast with Peter Fishburn's work on representative systems, or RSs, we do not treat collective approval and disapproval symmetrically; a voting rule may have a built-in bias against passing motions, for example. In this asymmetric case, the additional assumption that a rule is anonymous (all votes count equally) still allows for a significant variety of rules, a number of which are used by real voting bodies (see Freixas & Zwicker (2003)). We provide three characterizations of weighted voting in this context, and discuss potential applications. In real legislative voting bodies an abstention or absence often does have an effect different from a voter's yesor novote. Yet since the publication of Theory of Games and Economic Behaviorvon Neumann & Morgenstern (1949) the standard mathematical model for a legislative voting system has been the simple game, which by virtue of its structure treats any non-yesvote as a no. Peter Fishburns 1973 work seems to be the earliest to have taken abstention seriously, but others followed: Rubenstein (1980); Bolger (1986, 1993a,b); Felsenthal & Machover (1997, 1998); Amer et al. (1998); Freixas & Zwicker (2003); Côrte-Real & Pereira (2004); Dougherty & Edward (2004); Bilbao, Fernández, Jiménez, & López (2005a,b).

Suggested Citation

  • William S. Zwicker, 2009. "Anonymous Voting Rules with Abstention: Weighted Voting," Studies in Choice and Welfare, in: Steven J. Brams & William V. Gehrlein & Fred S. Roberts (ed.), The Mathematics of Preference, Choice and Order, pages 239-258, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:stcchp:978-3-540-79128-7_13
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-79128-7_13
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Annick Laruelle & Federico Valenciano, 2012. "Quaternary dichotomous voting rules," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 38(3), pages 431-454, March.
    2. Freixas, Josep & Tchantcho, Bertrand & Tedjeugang, Narcisse, 2014. "Achievable hierarchies in voting games with abstention," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 236(1), pages 254-260.
    3. Freixas, Josep, 2012. "Probabilistic power indices for voting rules with abstention," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 89-99.
    4. Annick Laruelle & Federico Valenciano, 2011. "Majorities with a quorum," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 23(2), pages 241-259, April.
      • Laruelle, Annick & Valenciano Llovera, Federico, 2010. "Majorities with a quorum," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    5. Keith L. Dougherty & Julian Edward, 2010. "The Properties of Simple Vs. Absolute Majority Rule: Cases Where Absences and Abstentions Are Important," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 22(1), pages 85-122, January.
    6. Laruelle, Annick & Valenciano Llovera, Federico, 2010. "Quaternary dichotomous voting rules," IKERLANAK 2010-41, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    7. Sanjay Bhattacherjee & Palash Sarkar, 2021. "Weighted voting procedure having a unique blocker," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 50(1), pages 279-295, March.
    8. Laruelle, Annick & Valenciano Llovera, Federico, 2010. "Majorities with a quorum," IKERLANAK 2010-42, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    9. Freixas, Josep & Zwicker, William S., 2009. "Anonymous yes-no voting with abstention and multiple levels of approval," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 428-444, November.

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