TY - JOUR
T1 - Majority decisions when abstention is possible
AU - Larson, Paul
AU - Matteo, Nicholas
AU - Shelah, Saharon
PY - 2012/4/6
Y1 - 2012/4/6
N2 - Suppose that we are given a family of choice functions on pairs from a given finite set. The set is considered as a set of alternatives (say candidates for an office) and the functions as potential "voters." The question is, what choice functions agree, on every pair, with the majority of some finite subfamily of the voters? For the problem as stated, a complete characterization was given in Shelah (2009) [7], but here we allow voters to abstain. Aside from the trivial case, the possible families of (partial) choice functions break into three cases in terms of the functions that can be generated by majority decision. In one of these, cycles along the lines of Condorcet's paradox are avoided. In another, all partial choice functions can be represented.
AB - Suppose that we are given a family of choice functions on pairs from a given finite set. The set is considered as a set of alternatives (say candidates for an office) and the functions as potential "voters." The question is, what choice functions agree, on every pair, with the majority of some finite subfamily of the voters? For the problem as stated, a complete characterization was given in Shelah (2009) [7], but here we allow voters to abstain. Aside from the trivial case, the possible families of (partial) choice functions break into three cases in terms of the functions that can be generated by majority decision. In one of these, cycles along the lines of Condorcet's paradox are avoided. In another, all partial choice functions can be represented.
KW - Choice function
KW - Condorcet's paradox
KW - Majority decision
KW - Tournament
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855901268&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.disc.2011.12.024
DO - 10.1016/j.disc.2011.12.024
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AN - SCOPUS:84855901268
SN - 0012-365X
VL - 312
SP - 1336
EP - 1352
JO - Discrete Mathematics
JF - Discrete Mathematics
IS - 7
ER -