Evolving Decision-Making: Exploring the Shift from Binary to Preferential Voting

Abstract

Covid and Climate Change are telling us that we must all work together.But we cannot work well with each other, if we are forever taking decisions by voting (for or) against each other. By viewing problems in more detail, however, by not oversimplifying our controversies, and then by expressing our preferences on a range of, say, half-a-dozen options, cooperation and collective decision-making are indeed possible. Accordingly, this article first looks at a history of decision-making voting procedures, from the binary (either ‘Option X, yes or no?’ or ‘Option X or option Y?’), to the multi-optional or, better still, preferential; next, it critiques majority voting and considers some of the other, more sophisticated mechanisms, before concluding that a preferential points procedure is actually the most accurate. Finally, the text outlines the beneficial consequences that could accrue from developing such a non-binary political structure; majority voting leads to majority (sic) rule, whereas preferential decision-making could be is the basis of a quantum polity and real majority rule: a non-partisan polity of all-party power-sharing. Such a structure is often used in post-conflict zones, but could also be the basis of cooperation and consensus seeking in the UN’s efforts on Climate Change.