In: Economics
What is the voting paradox? Explain the voting paradox in the Business goal game you have learned. If you are playing the game as the leader in the group “Right”, what are your best strategies for your group and explain why?
A fundamental problem faced by any group of people is how to arrive at a good group decision when there is disagreement among its members. The difficulties are most evident when there is a large number of people with diverse opinions, such as, when electing leaders in a national election. But it is often not any easier with smaller groups, such as, when a committee must select a candidate to hire, or when a group of friends must decide where to go for dinner. Mathematicians, philosophers.
paradox of voting, also called Downs paradox, is that for a
rational, self-interested voter, the costs of voting will normally
exceed the expected benefits. Because the chance of exercising the
pivotal vote (i.e., in an otherwise tied election) is minuscule
compared to any realistic estimate of the private individual
benefits of the different possible outcomes, the expected benefits
of voting are less than the costs.
This is paradoxical, because it means that majority wishes can be
in conflict with each other: Majorities prefer, for example,
candidate A over B, B over C, and yet C over A. When this occurs,
it is because the conflicting majorities are each made up of
different groups of individuals.