deborda.org

The de Borda Institute, after Jean-Charles de Borda, 1733-99

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About us

I'm on my way to China again. And here's the blog: https://deborda.substack.com/p/debordaabroad2

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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.

Annual Reports

Decision-Maker APP

Won by One

MBC

QBS

The Matrix Vote

Practical Examples

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!

Friday

Feb052016

2016-1, EU referendums, (British/Dutch)

Friday, February 5, 2016

If you ask the wrong question, you may get the wrong answer. As in this press release.

The Dutch referendum on 6th April was a nonsense: those voting 'yes' were thinking about Ukraine, those voting 'no' were more concerned about the EU.

We have got to say 'yes' to something. Decision-making should invariably be based on ballots of 3- or more- options, on which the voters say 'yes' to at least one option, or, at best, in their order of preference to more than one. Thus can we identify the option with the highest average preference, which is, ah, the consensus option.

Deborda |

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10 References |

Friday

Nov062015

2015-7 UK Constitutional Convention?

Friday, November 6, 2015

openDemocracy has just published: https://opendemocracy.net/uk/peter-emerson/inclusive-decision-making-systems-are-must-for-any-uk-constitutional-convention

It follows the piece in May on the EU in/out referendum: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-emerson/eu-referendum-what-is-question-though

Deborda |

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5 References |

Saturday

Sep122015

2015-6 Defining Democracy - recent reviews

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Katy Hayward has reviewed Defining Democracy in the journal, Representation:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00344893.2015.1064225

and Miloš Brunclík has done the same in Central European Political Studies:

http://www.cepsr.com/clanek.php?ID=618

Deborda |

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6 References |

Wednesday

Aug192015

2015-5 UK Labour Party leadership election

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

This letter was published in the Irish News, Aug 19th. In a second letter, I predicted a result with candidates A-B-C-D getting A 60%, B 20% (not a bad guess, really), C 10% and D 10% of the 1st preferences, but if the A, C and D supporters all give B their 2nd preferences and A their 4th, then in a Borda Count election, (not A but) B would have been the most popular.

And this second letter was in The Guardian on 14 Sept.

Deborda |

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10 References |

Monday

May112015

2015-4, SNP get PR-STV for Westminster?

Monday, May 11, 2015

A press release, calling for the SNP to get PR-STV for Westminster elections. And The Guardian published a version of this letter on 11th May,

Most MPs were not first-past-the-post because they didn't even reach it. Only 48.6 per cent of the MPs, 316 of them, were elected by a majority of their constituents. Yet they now use majority voting in parliament? See also 2015-3 and 2015-2.

Deborda |

1 Comment |

6 References |

Tuesday

Apr212015

2015-3 UK election, 7th May

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

A hung parliament might have promoted reform; the worry is that a majority government perpetuates majority rule.

Alas, there's a Tory majority. So, instead of negotiating with the Liberals, Cameron now has to talk with his right wing. That or, like John Major on Maastricht, chat up potential allies like the DUP - who also have a price.

We distributed four press releases, the first on 7th March, next was another on 3rd May before this one on the day before polling and on the 7th itself, this finale. In addition, openDemocracy published this:

https://opendemocracy.net/peter-emerson/if-parliament-be-hung

This letter to The Guardian - Murphy's Law of politics - was not printed. See also 2015-2.

Deborda |

1 Comment |

21 References |

Thursday

Jan292015

2015-2. UK general election, May 2015

Thursday, January 29, 2015

David Cameron got the question wrong in both the 2011 FPP v AV and the Scottish referendums; "careless," as Oscar Wilde would say. In all probability, he will soon rue the day he decided the question on the electoral system would be "FPP or AV?" (i.e., his 1st preference or his 2nd?) After the May general election, there will almost certainly be a hung parliament; so should there be (a minority administration), a majoriy 2- or 3-party coalition, a grand coalition, or, as in Switzerland, an all-party coalition?

But why majority rule? Because decisions are taken by majority vote? If so, then again, why? It is, after all, the most inaccurate measure of collective opinion ever invented. Hence this article on openDemocracy:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-emerson/2015-general-election-in-britain-free-and-fair

And hence, too, this press release, on 7th March.

Deborda |

1 Comment |

2 References |

Monday

Jan122015

2015-1: Hong Kong 香港 2nd consultation

Monday, January 12, 2015

This submission to the 2nd consultation was made on 12.1.2015. And here's the 1st one to the 1st consultation.

(See also 2014-11, 2013-16/13/11.)

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3 References |

Thursday

Nov132014

2014-14: Preferendum preferably (Village)

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Ireland. Yet again, abortion is on the agenda. Another referendum? Or a preferendum? The article is in Village magazine, Oct. 2014: http://www.villagemagazine.ie/index.php/page/2/

See also 2014-13, for a Village article on China.

Deborda |

1 Comment |

17 References |

Saturday

Oct182014