The evaluation of voting rules based on voting networks: Weber problem with support domain

Abstract

This study focuses on improving the Weber model to obtain a more optimised solution, by which we can measure effectively the quality of the voting rules. By introducing the voter’s supporting domain and the candidate’s supported degree to depict the emotional factors of voters and the real voting network, we propose the concept of validity for a candidate. Upon the traditional Weber model, two improved models are presented and the corresponding global optimal candidate is used as the evaluation benchmark for the voting rules. The experiments show that the optimal solution of the two models has better robustness in complex voting networks, can be used as a standard to evaluate the voting rules. When the support degree of voter is the main factor, the Condorcet rule is optimal in most cases, and when the validity of the candidate is taken as the main factor, the Approval rule must be the best.