New article , together with Salvatore Barbaro, in Public Choice: On the prevalence of Condorcet's Paradox.
Analyzing 253 national elections, we show that Condorcet Paradoxes virtually never occur. This raises an important question: who is the Condorcet winner?
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Our 81st annual congress took off! 🚀
Welcome 300 participants at USIU in Nairobi, Kenya! Introductions by IIPF President Jim Hines, Scientific Chairs
@fgerard.bsky.social @shafikhebous.bsky.social, Local Organizers Amos Njuguna (USIU/NIERA) and @DinaPomeranz. Thanks for making this event happen!
There are better alternatives. Among them, the Borda count stands out as particularly resilient to polarising dynamics. It rewards broader appeal rather than extremism.
The article is published in a formal, mathematics-oriented journal, but I hope its key messages remain accessible to everyone.
In extreme cases, a party may win support through misogynistic 🤢 or xenophobic 🤮 rhetoric. Even if a large majority of voters reject such positions, this rejection does not matter electorally – as long as the party secures enough first-choice votes.
Most electoral systems only allow voters to express their first preference. What about second-best or third-best options? They are ignored. This incentivises political actors to focus narrowly on their base, not the broader electorate.
🤬 Polarisation is a global threat to democratic norms. Much attention has rightly been paid to causes such as social media. However, one crucial driver is often overlooked: our voting system itself. ‼️
📢 New publication – on a topic close to my heart
After many years of work 🤔 , my article on Election Methods and Political Polarisation is now out in Mathematical Social Sciences:
doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
doi.org/10.1093/publ...
How do you feel about federalism? This reimagined "Gretchenfrage" finds very different answers among state gov's in Germany. What explains these varying perspectives—parties, history, culture, or merely money? Our article in Publius offers insights.
