11 - Strategic Voting

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the problem of defining rational voting strategies in contrast to the sincere maximax strategies. The usual problems with equilibrium points in N-person games have been shown to exist: there are usually several to choose from and some seem more rational than others. It explains Farquharson's classical solution, via successive elimination of dominated strategies to find a sophisticated outcome. Two major difficulties with this method, cumbersomeness and a failure to find determinate solutions to some plurality vote are revealed. The multistage game analysis was shown to be especially simple and powerful for binary procedures. General results are presented on strategic voting. Strategic voting is unfair and is challenged in the light of these results. Strategic voting was shown to lead to more democratic and ethically acceptable collective choices than sincere voting.