The expressive power of voting rules
The expressive power of voting rules
Different voting rules are commonly used to settle collective decisions. A promising way to assess voting rules, for which little is known, is to compare the expressive utility that voters derive from voting with each rule. In this paper, we first propose a simple ordinal model of expressive voting that allows us to compare voting rules in terms of the expressive utility that voters can derive from voting (their expressive power). Our model provides a novel testable implication according to which expected turnout increases with expressive power. We then ran an online experiment testing this implication in a controlled environment. We find that if voters are made aware of alternative voting rules, turnout is higher in voting rules with higher expressive power. Our results also show that higher expressive power is associated with a better representation of voters’ actual preferences and, according to our model, higher expressive utility. This suggests that the expressive power of voting rules is a relevant criterion when choosing between voting rules for economic and political decisions.
Expressive voting, Voting rules, Turnout behaviour, Online experiment
233-273
Bourgeois-Gironde, Sacha
ad0db321-0782-4601-939c-4df1ab47f527
Ferreira, João V.
0aad606a-eab0-473c-a230-9b3dfa2d7d93
March 2024
Bourgeois-Gironde, Sacha
ad0db321-0782-4601-939c-4df1ab47f527
Ferreira, João V.
0aad606a-eab0-473c-a230-9b3dfa2d7d93
Bourgeois-Gironde, Sacha and Ferreira, João V.
(2024)
The expressive power of voting rules.
Social Choice and Welfare, 62 (2), .
(doi:10.1007/s00355-023-01486-y).
Abstract
Different voting rules are commonly used to settle collective decisions. A promising way to assess voting rules, for which little is known, is to compare the expressive utility that voters derive from voting with each rule. In this paper, we first propose a simple ordinal model of expressive voting that allows us to compare voting rules in terms of the expressive utility that voters can derive from voting (their expressive power). Our model provides a novel testable implication according to which expected turnout increases with expressive power. We then ran an online experiment testing this implication in a controlled environment. We find that if voters are made aware of alternative voting rules, turnout is higher in voting rules with higher expressive power. Our results also show that higher expressive power is associated with a better representation of voters’ actual preferences and, according to our model, higher expressive utility. This suggests that the expressive power of voting rules is a relevant criterion when choosing between voting rules for economic and political decisions.
Text
s00355-023-01486-y
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Accepted/In Press date: 22 August 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 October 2023
Published date: March 2024
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Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
Expressive voting, Voting rules, Turnout behaviour, Online experiment
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 485358
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485358
ISSN: 0176-1714
PURE UUID: 059eaaac-e01f-4a15-b028-65e7f67ab362
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Date deposited: 05 Dec 2023 17:35
Last modified: 16 Jul 2024 01:56
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Author:
Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde
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