The Case for Utilitarian Voting

Hillinger, Claude

doi:10.2139/ssrn.732285

Cited by 37 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The sum of the grades a candidate receives is her score, and the candidate who gets the highest score is elected. Evaluative voting, also called utilitarian voting, or range voting, is historically and conceptually linked to the utilitarian paradigm (Bentham 1822;Dhillon and Mertens 1999;Hillinger 2005). While the principle of additive evaluation is widely used in practice (schools, sports, market research, feeling thermometers, etc.…”

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confidence: 99%

Who's favored by evaluative voting? An experiment conducted during the 2012 French presidential election

et al. 2014

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Under evaluative voting, the voter freely grades each candidate on a numerical scale, with the winning candidate being determined by the sum of the grades they receive. This paper compares evaluative voting with the two-round system, reporting on an experiment which used various evaluation scales, conducted during the first round of the 2012 French presidential election. Invitations to participate in the study were extended to around 5,000 voters in three cities, and the experiment attracted 2,340 participants. Basing our argument on the * We extend grateful thanks to all the members of the Community Councils, all the participants, and all the volunteers who helped us on April 22.(See http://www.gate.cnrs.fr/spip.php?rubrique94#Merci).† GATE L-SE (UMR CNRS 5824), University Jean Monnet, 42 000 Saint-Etienne, France, antoinette.baujard@univ-st-etienne.fr ‡ CREM (UMR CNRS 6211), University of Caen Basse-Normandie, 14 000 Caen, France, frederic.gavrel@unicaen.fr § CNRS and Beta (UMR CNRS 7522), University of Strasbourg, 67 085 Strasbourg,France, igersheim@unistra.fr ¶ PREG (UMR CNRS 7176), Ecole polytechnique, 91 128 Palaiseau, France, jeanfrancois.laslier@polytechnique.edu CREM (UMR CNRS 6211), University of Caen Basse-Normandie, 14 000 Caen, France isabelle.lebon@unicaen.fr 1 ranks, relative scores, and grade profiles of candidates, we show that the two-round system favors "exclusive" candidates, that is candidates who elicit strong feelings, while evaluative rules favor "inclusive" candidates, that is candidates who attract the support of a large span of the electorate. These differences are explained by two complementary reasons: the opportunity for the voter to support several candidates under evaluative voting rules, and the specific pattern of strategic voting under the official, two-round voting rule. Classification JEL: D72, C93Keywords: Voting, In Situ Experiment, Evaluative Voting, Approval Voting, Two-round system Highlights• The two-round system favors "exclusive" candidates, that is candidates who elicit strong feelings.• Evaluative rules favor "inclusive" candidates, that is candidates who attract the support of a large span of the electorate.• One explanation of the differences between the elections wins and rankings between the two-round system and evaluative voting rules is that the opportunity for the voter to support several candidates under evaluative voting rules.• One explanation of the differences between the elections wins and rankings between the two-round system and evaluative voting rules relies in the specific pattern of strategic voting under the official, two-round voting rule. 2A voting rule is supposed to be able to determine the candidate most favored by a community of voters. However, it is a well-established conclusion of social choice theory that voting by itself is mathematically incapable of picking the single and uncontroversial winner of an election (Arrow 1957).For a given set of electoral preferences, different voting rules may elect or favor distinct candidates (F...

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Who's favored by evaluative voting? An experiment conducted during the 2012 French presidential election

et al. 2014

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“…Hillinger (2005) suggests the following. Given the preference relations one can eo ipso construct the corresponding utility functions.…”

Section: Asking For More Than Rankingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To quote one of them (Hillinger 2005): ... a new 'paradox of voting': It is theorists' fixation on a context dependent and ordinal preference scale; the most primitive scale imaginable and the mother of all paradoxes. In fact, this response has a firm foundation in the classic utility theory.…”

Section: Asking For More Than Rankingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electoral Systems

2012

Studies in Choice and Welfare

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“…My analysis of voting appeared in Hillinger (2005b). To the method of voting with an unrestricted cardinal scale I gave the name utilitarian voting, a reference to the utilitarian tradition in economics which goes back to Jeremy Bentham and classical economics.…”

Section: Wwweconomics-ejournalorgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…My own discussion will be entirely non-technical, it is however based on a rigorous paper (Hillinger, 2005b) to which the interested reader may turn.…”

Section: Arrow and The Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science and Ideology in Economic, Political and Social Thought

Hillinger

2008

Economics

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Abstract:This paper has two sources: One is my own research in three broad areas: business cycles, economic measurement and social choice. In all of these fields I attempted to apply the basic precepts of the scientific method as it is understood in the natural sciences. I found that my effort at using natural science methods in economics was met with little understanding and often considerable hostility. I found economics to be driven less by common sense and empirical evidence, than by various ideologies that exhibited either a political or a methodological bias, or both. This brings me to the second source: Several books have appeared recently that describe in historical terms the ideological forces that have shaped either the direct areas in which I worked, or a broader background. These books taught me that the ideological forces in the social sciences are even stronger than I imagined on the basis of my own experiences.The scientific method is the antipode to ideology. I feel that the scientific work that I have done on specific, long standing and fundamental problems in economics and political science have given me additional insights into the destructive role of ideology beyond the history of thought orientation of the works I will be discussing. JEL: B40, C50, D6, D71, E32

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The Case for Utilitarian Voting

Cited by 37 publications

References 12 publications

Who's favored by evaluative voting? An experiment conducted during the 2012 French presidential election

Who's favored by evaluative voting? An experiment conducted during the 2012 French presidential election

Electoral Systems

Science and Ideology in Economic, Political and Social Thought

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