The Mathematics of Voting and Apportionment

The Mathematics of Voting and Apportionment PDF Author: Sherif El-Helaly
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030147681
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This textbook contains a rigorous exposition of the mathematical foundations of two of the most important topics in politics and economics: voting and apportionment, at the level of upper undergraduate and beginning graduate students. It stands out among comparable books by providing, in one volume, an extensive and mathematically rigorous treatment of these two topics. The text’s three chapters cover social choice, yes-no voting, and apportionment, respectively, and can be covered in any order, allowing teachers ample flexibility. Each chapter begins with an elementary introduction and several examples to motivate the concepts and to gradually lead to more advanced material. Landmark theorems are presented with detailed and streamlined proofs; those requiring more complex proofs, such as Arrow’s theorems on dictatorship, Gibbard’s theorem on oligarchy, and Gärdenfors’ theorem on manipulation, are broken down into propositions and lemmas in order to make them easier to grasp. Simple and intuitive notations are emphasized over non-standard, overly complicated symbols. Additionally, each chapter ends with exercises that vary from computational to “prove or disprove” types. The Mathematics of Voting and Apportionment will be particularly well-suited for a course in the mathematics of voting and apportionment for upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students in economics, political science, or philosophy, or for an elective course for math majors. In addition, this book will be a suitable read for to any curious mathematician looking for an exposition to these unpublicized mathematical applications. No political science prerequisites are needed. Mathematical prerequisites (included in the book) are minimal: elementary concepts in combinatorics, graph theory, order relations, and the harmonic and geometric means. What is needed most is the level of maturity that enables the student to think logically, derive results from axioms and hypotheses, and intuitively grasp logical notions such as “contrapositive” and “counterexample.”

The Mathematics of Voting and Apportionment

The Mathematics of Voting and Apportionment PDF Author: Sherif El-Helaly
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030147681
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book

Book Description
This textbook contains a rigorous exposition of the mathematical foundations of two of the most important topics in politics and economics: voting and apportionment, at the level of upper undergraduate and beginning graduate students. It stands out among comparable books by providing, in one volume, an extensive and mathematically rigorous treatment of these two topics. The text’s three chapters cover social choice, yes-no voting, and apportionment, respectively, and can be covered in any order, allowing teachers ample flexibility. Each chapter begins with an elementary introduction and several examples to motivate the concepts and to gradually lead to more advanced material. Landmark theorems are presented with detailed and streamlined proofs; those requiring more complex proofs, such as Arrow’s theorems on dictatorship, Gibbard’s theorem on oligarchy, and Gärdenfors’ theorem on manipulation, are broken down into propositions and lemmas in order to make them easier to grasp. Simple and intuitive notations are emphasized over non-standard, overly complicated symbols. Additionally, each chapter ends with exercises that vary from computational to “prove or disprove” types. The Mathematics of Voting and Apportionment will be particularly well-suited for a course in the mathematics of voting and apportionment for upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students in economics, political science, or philosophy, or for an elective course for math majors. In addition, this book will be a suitable read for to any curious mathematician looking for an exposition to these unpublicized mathematical applications. No political science prerequisites are needed. Mathematical prerequisites (included in the book) are minimal: elementary concepts in combinatorics, graph theory, order relations, and the harmonic and geometric means. What is needed most is the level of maturity that enables the student to think logically, derive results from axioms and hypotheses, and intuitively grasp logical notions such as “contrapositive” and “counterexample.”

The Mathematics of Voting and Elections

The Mathematics of Voting and Elections PDF Author: Jonathan K. Hodge
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821837982
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The Mathematics of Voting and Elections: A Hands-on Approach will help you discover answers to these and many other questions. Easily accessible to anyone interested in the subject, the book requires virtually no prior mathematical experience beyond basic arithmetic, and includes numerous examples and discussions regarding actual elections from politics and popular culture.

Making Democracy Fair: The mathematics of voting and apportionment

Making Democracy Fair: The mathematics of voting and apportionment PDF Author: Michael de Villiers
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1300223561
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
How do you know if an election is fair? Or if the result truly represents the choice of the people? In Making Democracy Fair students use elementary mathematical methods to explore different kinds of ballots, election decision procedures, and apportionment methods. In the first half of the book, students are introduced to a variety of alternatives to the "winner take all" strategy used in most elections. Determining which strategy is fairest is usually a very difficult question to answer, and many times the strategy chosen determines the winner. In the second part of the book, students investigate different methods of apportionment. How many representatives from each state will there be in the United States House of Representatives? How do countries using a proportional representation decide on the number of representatives from each political party to be seated in their government bodies?

The Mathematics of Politics

The Mathematics of Politics PDF Author: E. Arthur Robinson
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1498798888
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
It is because mathematics is often misunderstood, it is commonly believed it has nothing to say about politics. The high school experience with mathematics, for so many the lasting impression of the subject, suggests that mathematics is the study of numbers, operations, formulas, and manipulations of symbols. Those believing this is the extent of mathematics might conclude mathematics has no relevance to politics. This book counters this impression. The second edition of this popular book focuses on mathematical reasoning about politics. In the search for ideal ways to make certain kinds of decisions, a lot of wasted effort can be averted if mathematics can determine that finding such an ideal is actually impossible in the first place. In the first three parts of this book, we address the following three political questions: (1) Is there a good way to choose winners of elections? (2) Is there a good way to apportion congressional seats? (3) Is there a good way to make decisions in situations of conflict and uncertainty? In the fourth and final part of this book, we examine the Electoral College system that is used in the United States to select a president. There we bring together ideas that are introduced in each of the three earlier parts of the book.

Numbers Rule

Numbers Rule PDF Author: George Szpiro
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691209081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The author takes the general reader on a tour of the mathematical puzzles and paradoxes inherent in voting systems, such as the Alabama Paradox, in which an increase in the number of seats in the Congress could actually lead to a reduced number of representatives for a state, and the Condorcet Paradox, which demonstrates that the winner of elections featuring more than two candidates does not necessarily reflect majority preferences. Szpiro takes a roughly chronological approach to the topic, traveling from ancient Greece to the present and, in addition to offering explanations of the various mathematical conundrums of elections and voting, also offers biographical details on the mathematicians and other thinkers who thought about them, including Plato, Pliny the Younger, Pierre Simon Laplace, Thomas Jefferson, John von Neumann, and Kenneth Arrow.

Proportional Representation

Proportional Representation PDF Author: Friedrich Pukelsheim
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319647075
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
The book offers an in-depth study of the translation of vote counts into seat numbers in proportional representation systems – an approach guided by practical needs. It also provides plenty of empirical instances illustrating the results. It analyzes in detail the 2014 elections to the European Parliament in the 28 member states, as well as the 2009 and 2013 elections to the German Bundestag. This second edition is a complete revision and expanded version of the first edition published in 2014, and many empirical election results that serve as examples have been updated. Further, a final chapter has been added assembling biographical sketches and authoritative quotes from individuals who pioneered the development of apportionment methodology. The mathematical exposition and the interrelations with political science and constitutional jurisprudence make this an apt resource for interdisciplinary courses and seminars on electoral systems and apportionment methods.

Mathematics to the Rescue of Democracy

Mathematics to the Rescue of Democracy PDF Author: Paolo Serafini
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030383687
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
This book explains, in a straightforward way, the foundations upon which electoral techniques are based in order to shed new light on what we actually do when we vote. The intention is to highlight the fact that no matter how an electoral system has been designed, and regardless of the intentions of those who devised the system, there will be goals that are impossible to achieve but also opportunities for improving the situation in an informed way. While detailed descriptions of electoral systems are not provided, many references are made to current or past situations, both as examples and to underline particular problems and shortcomings. In addition, a new voting method that avoids the many paradoxes of voting theory is described in detail. While some knowledge of mathematics is required in order to gain the most from the book, every effort has been made to ensure that the subject matter is easily accessible for non-mathematicians, too. In short, this is a book for anyone who wants to understand the meaning of voting.

Mathematics and Democracy

Mathematics and Democracy PDF Author: Bruno Simeone
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540356053
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
In this book, different quantitative approaches to the study of electoral systems have been developed: game-theoretic, decision-theoretic, statistical, probabilistic, combinatorial, geometric, and optimization ones. All the authors are prominent scholars from these disciplines. Quantitative approaches offer a powerful tool to detect inconsistencies or poor performance in actual systems. Applications to concrete settings such as EU, American Congress, regional, and committee voting are discussed.

Mathematics of Social Choice

Mathematics of Social Choice PDF Author: Christoph Borgers
Publisher: SIAM
ISBN: 0898717620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Mathematics of Social Choice is a fun and accessible book that looks at the choices made by groups of people with different preferences, needs, and interests. Divided into three parts, the text first examines voting methods for selecting or ranking candidates. A brief second part addresses compensation problems wherein an indivisible item must be assigned to one of several people who are equally entitled to ownership of the item, with monetary compensation paid to the others. The third part discusses the problem of sharing a divisible resource among several people. Mathematics of Social Choice can be used by undergraduates studying mathematics and students whose only mathematical background is elementary algebra. More advanced material can be skipped without any loss of continuity. The book can also serve as an easy introduction to topics such as the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem, Arrow's theorem, and fair division for readers with more mathematical background.

Proportional Representation

Proportional Representation PDF Author: Friedrich Pukelsheim
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3319038567
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The book offers a rigorous description of the procedures that proportional representation systems use to translate vote counts into seat numbers. Since the methodological analysis is guided by practical needs, plenty of empirical instances are provided and reviewed to motivate the development, and to illustrate the results. Concrete examples, like the 2009 elections to the European Parliament in each of the 27 Member States and the 2013 election to the German Bundestag, are analyzed in full detail. The level of mathematical exposition, as well as the relation to political sciences and constitutional jurisprudence makes this book suitable for special graduate courses and seminars.