Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It)

William Poundstone

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Our Electoral System is Fundamentally Flawed, But There's a Simple and Fair Solution

At least five U.S. presidential elections have been won by the second most popular candidate. The reason was a "spoiler"--a minor candidate who takes enough votes away from the most popular candidate to tip the election to someone else. The spoiler effect is more than a glitch. It is a consequence of one of the most surprising intellectual discoveries of the twentieth century: the "impossibility theorem" of Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow. The impossibility theorem asserts that voting is fundamentally unfair--a finding that has not been lost on today's political consultants. Armed with polls, focus groups, and smear campaigns, political strategists are exploiting the mathematical faults of the simple majority vote. In recent election cycles, this has led to such unlikely tactics as Republicans funding ballot drives for Green spoilers and Democrats paying for right-wing candidates' radio ads. Gaming the Vote shows that there is a solution to the spoiler problem that will satisfy both right and left. A system
called range voting, already widely used on the Internet, is the fairest voting method of all, according to computer studies. Despite these findings, range voting remains controversial, and Gaming the Vote assesses the obstacles confronting any attempt to change the American electoral system. The latest of several books by William Poundstone on the theme of how important scientific ideas have affected the real world, Gaming the Vote is a wry exposé of how the political system really works, and a call to action.

Language: English

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Hill and Wang

Release: February 05, 2008

ISBN: 0809048930

ISBN 13: 9780809048939

Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It)

William Poundstone

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Our Electoral System is Fundamentally Flawed, But There's a Simple and Fair Solution

At least five U.S. presidential elections have been won by the second most popular candidate. The reason was a "spoiler"--a minor candidate who takes enough votes away from the most popular candidate to tip the election to someone else. The spoiler effect is more than a glitch. It is a consequence of one of the most surprising intellectual discoveries of the twentieth century: the "impossibility theorem" of Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow. The impossibility theorem asserts that voting is fundamentally unfair--a finding that has not been lost on today's political consultants. Armed with polls, focus groups, and smear campaigns, political strategists are exploiting the mathematical faults of the simple majority vote. In recent election cycles, this has led to such unlikely tactics as Republicans funding ballot drives for Green spoilers and Democrats paying for right-wing candidates' radio ads. Gaming the Vote shows that there is a solution to the spoiler problem that will satisfy both right and left. A system
called range voting, already widely used on the Internet, is the fairest voting method of all, according to computer studies. Despite these findings, range voting remains controversial, and Gaming the Vote assesses the obstacles confronting any attempt to change the American electoral system. The latest of several books by William Poundstone on the theme of how important scientific ideas have affected the real world, Gaming the Vote is a wry exposé of how the political system really works, and a call to action.

Language: English

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Hill and Wang

Release: February 05, 2008

ISBN: 0809048930

ISBN 13: 9780809048939

More books from William Poundstone

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)

3.8/5 ( ratings)

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle--How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Head in the Cloud: Why Knowing Things Still Matters When Facts Are So Easy to Look Up

3.4/5 ( ratings)

The Lost Ways 2: The Best Survivalist Guide

4.1/5 ( ratings)

How to Predict Everything: The Formula Transforming What We Know About Life and the Universe

3.4/5 ( ratings)

The Ultimate: The Great Armchair Debates Settled Once and for All

3.2/5 ( ratings)

How to Predict Everything

3.5/5 ( ratings)

How Do You Fight a Horse-Size Duck?

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Wie viele Golfbälle passen in einen Schulbus?: So bestehen Sie jedes Assessment-Center. Die unglaublichsten Fragen und wie Sie kreativ darauf reagieren

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles and the Frailty of Knowledge

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Big Secrets

3.5/5 ( ratings)

How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck?: And Other Perplexing Puzzles from the Toughest Interviews in the World

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Como Mover o Monte Fuji

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Big Secrets: The Uncensored Truth about All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody by Poundstone, William(September 8, 2015) Paperback

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?