21,679 research outputs found
Multiwinner Voting with Fairness Constraints
Multiwinner voting rules are used to select a small representative subset of
candidates or items from a larger set given the preferences of voters. However,
if candidates have sensitive attributes such as gender or ethnicity (when
selecting a committee), or specified types such as political leaning (when
selecting a subset of news items), an algorithm that chooses a subset by
optimizing a multiwinner voting rule may be unbalanced in its selection -- it
may under or over represent a particular gender or political orientation in the
examples above. We introduce an algorithmic framework for multiwinner voting
problems when there is an additional requirement that the selected subset
should be "fair" with respect to a given set of attributes. Our framework
provides the flexibility to (1) specify fairness with respect to multiple,
non-disjoint attributes (e.g., ethnicity and gender) and (2) specify a score
function. We study the computational complexity of this constrained multiwinner
voting problem for monotone and submodular score functions and present several
approximation algorithms and matching hardness of approximation results for
various attribute group structure and types of score functions. We also present
simulations that suggest that adding fairness constraints may not affect the
scores significantly when compared to the unconstrained case.Comment: The conference version of this paper appears in IJCAI-ECAI 201
Effects of cumpulsory voting on visible minority representation
This thesis examines the effects of compulsory voting on visible minority representation in directly elected legislatures with proportional electoral systems. The hypothesis is that there compulsory voting creates a positive effect on visible minority representation. The results show that this is true, but the margin is so small that it is likely other factors have large amounts of influence as well. Some of these factors are discussed
Sub-committee Approval Voting and Generalised Justified Representation Axioms
Social choice is replete with various settings including single-winner
voting, multi-winner voting, probabilistic voting, multiple referenda, and
public decision making. We study a general model of social choice called
Sub-Committee Voting (SCV) that simultaneously generalizes these settings. We
then focus on sub-committee voting with approvals and propose extensions of the
justified representation axioms that have been considered for proportional
representation in approval-based committee voting. We study the properties and
relations of these axioms. For each of the axioms, we analyse whether a
representative committee exists and also examine the complexity of computing
and verifying such a committee
Identifying the underlying structure and dynamic interactions in a voting network
We analyse the structure and behaviour of a specific voting network using a
dynamic structure-based methodology which draws on Q-Analysis and social
network theory. Our empirical focus is on the Eurovision Song Contest over a
period of 20 years. For a multicultural contest of this kind, one of the key
questions is how the quality of a song is judged and how voting groups emerge.
We investigate structures that may identify the winner based purely on the
topology of the network. This provides a basic framework to identify what the
characteristics associated with becoming a winner are, and may help to
establish a homogenous criterion for subjective measures such as quality.
Further, we measure the importance of voting cliques, and present a dynamic
model based on a changing multidimensional measure of connectivity in order to
reveal the formation of emerging community structure within the contest.
Finally, we study the dynamic behaviour exhibited by the network in order to
understand the clustering of voting preferences and the relationship between
local and global properties.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Physica
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