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The de Borda Institute

aims to promote the use of inclusive, multi-optional and preferential voting procedures, both in parliaments/congresses and in referendums, on all contentious questions of social choice.

This applies specifically to decision-making, be it for the electorate in regional/national polls, for their elected representatives in councils and parliaments, for members of a local community group, a company board, a co-operative, and so on.  But we also cover elections.

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The Institute is named after Jean-Charles de Borda, and hence the well-known voting procedure, the Borda Count BC; but Jean-Charles actually invented what is now called the Modified Borda Count, MBC - the difference is subtle:

In a vote on n options, the voter may cast m preferences; and, of course, m < n.

In a BC, points are awarded to (1st, 2nd ... last) preferences cast according to the rule (n, n-1 ... 1) {or (n-1, n-2 ... 0)} whereas,

in an MBC, points are awarded to (1st, 2nd ... last) preferences cast according to the rule (m, m-1 ... 1).

The difference can be huge, especially when the topic is controversial: the BC benefits those who cast only a 1st preference; the MBC encourages the consensual, those who submit not only a 1st preference but also their 2nd (and subsequent) compromise option(s).  And if (nearly) every voter states their compromise option(s), an MBC can identify the collective compromise.

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DECISION-MAKER
Inclusive voting app 

https://debordavote.com

THE APP TO BEAT ALL APPS, APPSOLUTELY!

(The latest in a long-line of electronic voting for decision-making; our first was in 1991.)

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FINANCES

The Institute was estabished in 1997 with a cash grant of £3,000 from the Joseph Rowntree Charitabe Trust, and has received the occasional sum from Northern Ireland's Community Relations Council and others.  Today it relies on voluntary donations and the voluntary work of its board, while most running expenses are paid by the director. 

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A BLOG 

"De Borda abroad." From Belfast to Beijing and beyond... and back. Starting in Vienna with the Sept 2017 TEDx talk, I give lectures in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Tehran, Beijing, Tianjin, Xuzhou, Hong Kong and Taiwan... but not in Pyongyang. Then back via Mongolia (where I had been an election observer in June 2017) and Moscow (where I'd worked in the '80s).

I have my little fold-up Brompton with me - surely the best way of exploring any new city! So I prefer to go by train, boat or bus, and then cycle wherever in each new venue; and all with just one plastic water bottle... or that was the intention!

The story is here.

In Sept 2019, I set off again, to promote the book of the journey.  After the ninth book launch in Taipei University, I went to stay with friends in a little village in Gansu for the Chinese New Year.  The rat.  Then came the virus, lockdown... and I was stuck.

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The Hospital for Incurable Protestants

The Mémoire of a Collapsed Catholic

 This is the story of a pacifist in a conflict zone, in Northern Ireland and the Balkans.  Only in e-format, but only £5.15.  Available from Amazon.

 

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The director alongside the statue of Jean-Charles de Borda, capitaine et savant, in l’École Navale in Brest, 24.9.2010. Photo by Gwenaelle Bichelot. 

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WELCOME

Welcome to the home page of the de Borda Institute, a Northern Ireland-based international organisation (an NGO) which aims to promote the use of inclusive voting procedures on all contentious questions of social choice. For more information use the menu options above or feel free to contact the organisation's headquarters. If you want to check the meaning of any of the terms used, then by all means have a look at this glossary.

As shown in these attachments, there are many voting procedures for use in decision-making and even more electoral systems.  This is because, in decision-making, there is usually only one outcome - a singe decision or a shopping ist, a prioritisation; but with some electoral systems, and definitely in any proportional ones, there can be several winners.  Sometimes, for any one voters' profile - that is, the set of all their preferences - the outcome of any count may well depend on the voting procedure used.  In this very simple example of a few voters voting on just four options, and in these two hypothetical examples on five, (word document) or (Power-point) in which a few cast their preferences on five options, the profiles are analysed according to different methodologies, and the winner could be any one of all the options.  Yet all of these methodologies are called democratic!  Extraordinary!

deborda.gif

Vienna TEDx Talk - October 2017

Here's the YouTube,  the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).

Thursday
Dec132012

2012-13: Catalonia and Scotland

DateThursday, December 13, 2012

Both Catalonia and Scotland talk of majority vote referendums.  Yet after the Dark Ages, the first European to criticise majority voting and to propose instead preference voting  was a Catalan: Ramon Llull, the 12th Century father of the science of social choice.  While he who led to the re-birth of this discipline was the 20th Century Scot, Duncan Black.  So we have written to The Scotsman (Edinburgh) and The Times (London) in English, to El Pais (Madrid) in Spanish, and to .... (Barcelona) in .......

(See also 2014-12, 2013-15, 2012-10/1 and 2011-1.)

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference10 References |
Tuesday
Dec112012

2012-12: Flags in Belfast

DateTuesday, December 11, 2012

Yet again, majority voting is shown to be inadequate.  Accordingly, this letter was sent to the press, and was published in The Irish News on 11.12.2012. (See also 2014-3.)

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment |
Tuesday
Dec112012

2012-11: (No) women bishops in the CoE

DateTuesday, December 11, 2012

What a mess!  And in large part, it is because the Church of England (like many another organisation) uses majority voting.  This was published in the Church of Ireland Gazette on 7.12.2012.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference3 References |
Wednesday
Oct172012

2012-10: Scottish referendum

DateWednesday, October 17, 2012

The sentence - "There should be a three-option preference vote on independence, devo-max and status quo." - was highlighted in today's Guardian.  The full text is here.  (See also 2014-12, 2013-15, 2012-13/1 and 2011-1.)

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Tuesday
Oct092012

2012-9: In Europe in general...

DateTuesday, October 9, 2012

The Green European Journal has just published my article on Decision-Making and Planetary Survival. It's on:  http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/decision-making-and-planetary-survival-the-link/

(See also 2012-8.)

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Monday
Oct082012

2012-8: And in France in particular...

DateMonday, October 8, 2012

An interview, published in the journal "Transrural Initiatives", is on http://www.transrural-initiatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/INTERVIEW-PETER-EMERSON-TRI-419.pdf

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Friday
Aug312012

2012-7: Matrix Vote, in Maynooth, Stormont.

DateFriday, August 31, 2012

On 23rd June, at the PSAI postgraduate conference in Maynooth, we did another experiment on the matrix vote.  The text and power-point presentation are attached, as too is the power-point used to present the results.  The full report is on-line at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojps/

Six MLAs - David Ford (Alliance), Nelson McCausland (DUP), Steven Agnew (Green Party), Alban Maginness (SDLP), Francie Molloy (SF) and John McCallister (UUP) - sponsored a seminar on the matrix vote in Stormont on Wed 12th Sept 2012, but only two MLAs attended, along with mainly GP activists. See also 2011-6/5.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference5 References |
Sunday
Jul222012

2012-6: The Guardian - 21.7.2012

DateSunday, July 22, 2012

"...like so many in the media," I wrote, "you debate electoral systems but not decision-making".  The full article is here.

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Sunday
Jun242012

2012-5: Tommy Sands interview.

DateSunday, June 24, 2012

Tommy Sands broadcast a full one-hour interview with Peter Emerson on his programme Country Ceili on Downtown Radio.  It's on http://www.yousendit.com/download/QlVpNU1OR0ZtMEp2Zk1UQw 

AuthorDeborda | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Saturday
Mar102012

2012-4: Video of Defining Democracy launch

DateSaturday, March 10, 2012

Youtube video of the House of Lord launch of Defining Democracy with Lord Ashdown.  And here's part of what was said at the Belfast launch: http://audioboo.fm/boos/740716-peter-emerson-talking-after-launch-of-his-book-on-decision-making-voting-procedures

(See also 2012-3.)

AuthorDeborda | Comments Off |
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