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The Theory of Committees and Elections

  • Book
  • © 1987

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Authors:
  1. Duncan Black

    1. University College of North Wales, UK

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The Theory of Committees and Elections

    1. A Committee and Motions

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 1-4

    2. Independent Valuation

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 4-11

    3. Can a Motion be Represented by the Same Symbol on Different Schedules?

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 11-14

    4. A Committee Using a Simple Majority: Single-Peaked Preference Curves

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 14-25

    5. A Committee Using a Simple Majority: Other Shapes of Preference Curves

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 25-35

    6. A Committee Using a Simple Majority: Any Shapes of Preference Curves, Number of Motions Finite

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 35-45

    7. Cyclical Majorities

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 46-51

    8. When the Ordinary Committee Procedure is in Use the Members’ Scales of Valuation may be Incomplete

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 51-55

    9. Which Candidate Ought to be Elected?

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 55-66

    10. Examination of Some Methods of Election in Single-Member Constituencies

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 66-75

    11. Proportional Representation

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 75-84

    12. The Decisions of a Committee Using a Special Majority

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 84-99

    13. The Elasticity of Committee Decisions with an Altering Size of Majority

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 99-108

    14. The Elasticity of Committee Decisions with Alterations in the Members’ Preference Schedules

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 109-118

    15. The Converse Problem: The Group of Schedules to Correspond to a Given Voting Matrix

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 119-125

    16. A Committee Using a Simple Majority: Complementary Motions

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 125-139

    17. International Agreements, Sovereignty and the Cabinet

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 140-155

  3. History of the Mathematical Theory of Committees and Elections (Excluding Proportional Representation)

    1. Borda, Condorcet and Laplace

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 156-185

    2. E. J. Nanson and Francis Galton

      • Duncan Black
      Pages 185-188
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Keywords

About this book

THIS book or some related work has occupied me spasmodically over rather a long period, in fact ever since I listened to the class lectures of Professor A. K. White on the possibility of forming a pure science of Politics. Mter an earlier version of Part I had failed to obtain publication in 1947, some chapters appeared as articles, and I am obliged to the editors of the journals mentioned below for permission to reprint this material, sometimes in a modified form. When I first attempted publication I was unacquainted with the earlier history of the theory, and, indeed, did not even know that it had a history; and the later additions to the book have largely been by way of writing the present Part II. This historical section does not include the important recent work, Social Ohoice and Individual Values (1951), of Professor Kenneth J. Arrow; but it does include all the mathematical work on committees and elections appearing before the middle of this century which has come to my notice, although the last item in it is dated 1907. No doubt there is much important material which I have failed to see. The theorizing of the book grew out of a reading of the English political philosophers and of the Italian writers on Public Finance. At a very early stage I was helped to find the general lines of development by discussion with my colleague Professor Ronald H.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University College of North Wales, UK

    Duncan Black

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Theory of Committees and Elections

  • Authors: Duncan Black

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4225-7

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Kluwer Academic Publishers 1987

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-89838-189-4Published: 31 December 1986

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-8375-1Published: 19 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-4225-7Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 242

  • Topics: Political Science, Public Economics

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