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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!
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. |
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.
Here's the YouTube, the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).
Monday, May 27, 2024 Politics is adversarial. It need not be so. Indeed, it should not be so. After all, democracy is for everybody, "the common good," not just....
Here's the article, in full:
Saturday, May 4, 2024 PRESS RELEASE 125 AI: INFLUENCING ELECTIONS THE SIMPLER THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM, THE EASIER IT IS TO INFLUENCE. The worst electoral system in...
Sunday, April 28, 2024 PRESS RELEASE Embargoed: 0001 am on Mon 29th April 2024. SCOTLAND...to be 'Won by One'? The will of Holyrood? Or the will of Ash Regan? In 1949, Germany's ....
Friday, April 12, 2024 'Politics, its Science, and the Prevention of War' is published in AIOR's Journal of Social and Political Sciences, 7(2), 1-15. https://www.asianinstituteofresearch.org/_files/ugd/ed8b62_d1cfa3981f2444e894161d6556667758.pdf
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 NI elections do not comply with international (OSCE) standards. PR-STV is good; but the way party activists campaign ON POLLING DAY, and sometimes, INSIDE THE POLLING PLACE, is appalling! BBC Radio 4, PM programme, interview, 27.3.2024, is on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001xmfx and it runs from minute 46 to 54. See also 2023-17, -14 and -09.
Sunday, March 10, 2024 A lecture on "Politics, its Science, and the Prevention of War" took place on 14th March in Karlstad University: https://kauplay.kau.se/media/t/0_o5tvl9uq
Friday, March 1, 2024 The Chinese Academy of Social Sceinces held their "Third International Forum on Democeracy: the Shared Human Values" on 2023-3-20. Here's our 'de Borda' contribution: https://vimeo.com/919681575
It starts in Chinese but, two minutes later, it's all in English.
Friday, March 1, 2024 Нет войне, (Nyet voinye, No to war!) was shouted by many mourners at the funeral of Alexei Navalny.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 And in the USA, the JTPP (Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis)From Binary and Adversarial to Preferential and Inclusive Politics has published: https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/
Friday, February 16, 2024 In CANADA's Journal of Politics and Law, the de Borda article concludes, "... politics - a game of no trumps."
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jpl/issue/view/0/3016
