>>"John" == John H Robinson, IV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
John> http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:4wJT-1c0FykC:www.democ.uci.edu/democ/papers/McGann02.pdf+condorcet+supermajority&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 Interesting. However, that paper makes a number of assumptions May (1952) shows that majority rule is the only positively responsive voting rule that satisfies anonymity (all voters are treated equally) and neutrality (all alternatives are treated equally). If we use a system other than majority rule, then we lose either anonymity or neutrality. Eh? this obviously does not apply. Additionally, the core of the argument is about bargaining powers, which apply to places like traditionally elected bodies (parliaments, etc), where people whose votes can't be bargained for to reach super majority lose out. This is by no means relevant to Debian's voting process. Additionally, the minorities are hurt position presupposes the minorities are the minorites in the US population, and the status quo is bad for them; this is arguably not relevant in the case of debian. Secondly, it says that supermajorities are biased with reference to the status quo -- which is, indeed, desired: we do put supermajority requirements only on documents and decisions where the status quo was arrived after a great deal of delibration, and has been adopted by the full membership, and indeed, forms the core of the project. The status Quo, in the case of the DFSG+SC, defines what our philosophies are, and they tread a fine line between extreme positions on either side. Being biased towards what has lead to the creation of a fine OS, and seems to have caused little (in my opinion) in the way of a crisis, seems to be a fine thing. The paper has failed to consvince me. It also deals with concepts of economic efficiency, and whether filibusters in the US senate have been used to oppose civil liberty laws, and thus do not protect minorities. manoj -- Somewhat alarmed at the continued growth of the number of employees on the Department of Agriculture payroll in 1962, Michigan Republican Robert Griffin proposed an amendment to the farm bill so that "the total number of employees in the Department of Agriculture at no time exceeds the number of farmers in America." Bill Adler, "The Washington Wits" Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/> 1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E 1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
