Quadratic voting: Difference between revisions
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| date = 1980}}</ref> More recently, the mechanism of quadratic voting was re-discovered and refined into its present form in 2012 by [[Glen Weyl|E. Glen Weyl]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.2139/ssrn.2003531| title = Quadratic Vote Buying| year = 2012| last1 = Weyl| first1 = E. Glen}}</ref><ref group=Note>This paper has been revised several times, but was originally published online in 2012.</ref> Shortly thereafter, Weyl began working on QV with [[Steven Lalley]] and [[Eric Posner]] to further refine the formalism of quadratic voting and its applications.<ref name=Lalley2017-1></ref><ref name=Posner2017PublicChoiceIntro></ref><ref name=votingSquared></ref><ref name=RadicalMarkets></ref> |
| date = 1980}}</ref> More recently, the mechanism of quadratic voting was re-discovered and refined into its present form in 2012 by [[Glen Weyl|E. Glen Weyl]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.2139/ssrn.2003531| title = Quadratic Vote Buying| year = 2012| last1 = Weyl| first1 = E. Glen}}</ref><ref group=Note>This paper has been revised several times, but was originally published online in 2012.</ref> Shortly thereafter, Weyl began working on QV with [[Steven Lalley]] and [[Eric Posner]] to further refine the formalism of quadratic voting and its applications.<ref name=Lalley2017-1></ref><ref name=Posner2017PublicChoiceIntro></ref><ref name=votingSquared></ref><ref name=RadicalMarkets></ref> |
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Many |
Many experiments at various scales <ref>{{cite paper | title=Electoral Engineering: One Man, One Vote Bid | last1= Goeree | first1=Jacob K.|last2= Zhang|first2=Jingjing|date=2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite paper | last1 = Cárdenas| first1 = J. C.|last2 = Mantilla|first2= C.|last3= Zárate|first3= R. D|date= 2014|title= Purchasing votes without cash: Implementing quadratic voting outside the lab.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi = 10.1007/s11127-017-0416-1}}</ref> and simulations<ref>{{cite journal| doi= 10.1007/s11127-017-0405-4| title= The robustness of quadratic voting| journal= Public Choice| volume= 172| issue= 1–2| pages= 75–107| year= 2017| last1= Weyl| first1= E. Glen}}</ref>, and more in-depth theoretical analyses<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1007/s11127-017-0406-3| title = Uncertainty, polarization, and proposal incentives under quadratic voting| journal = Public Choice| volume = 172| issue = 1–2| pages = 109–124| year = 2017| last1 = Patty| first1 = John W.| last2 = Penn| first2 = Elizabeth Maggie}}</ref> have been done on quadratic voting since 2012. A major step in the adoption of quadratic voting for political purposes happened in April 2019, when the Democratic caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives used quadratic voting to make budgetary decisions. The experiment in Colorado was generally viewed as successful in that the budget allocations were reported to be reasonable, and the process was smooth.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/story/colorado-quadratic-voting-experiment/|title=Colorado Tried a New Way to Vote: Make People Pay—Quadratically|work=Wired|access-date=2019-10-09|language=en|issn=1059-1028}}</ref><ref name=BloombergZealotry></ref> Several organizations and communities have formed to promote adoption of quadratic voting concurrent with its continued academic research, including [https://democracy.earth/ Democracy Earth] (an online platform for quadratic voting), [https://collectivedecisionengines.com/ Collective Decision Engines] (an app to facilitate QV adoption), and [https://radicalxchange.org/ RadicalxChange] (a community dedicated to decentralized forms of society and governance). |
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== Concept of mechanism == |
== Concept of mechanism == |
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Revision as of 02:02, 22 December 2019
Quadratic voting is a collective decision-making procedure where individuals allocate votes to express the degree of their preferences, rather than just the direction of their preferences.[1] By doing so, quadratic voting helps enable users to address issues of voting paradox and majority-rule. Quadratic voting works by allowing users to 'pay' for additional votes on a given matter to express their preference for a given issues more strongly, resulting in voting outcomes that are aligned with the highest willingness to pay outcome, rather than just the outcome preferred by the majority regardless of the intensity of individual preferences. The payment for votes may be through either artificial or real currencies (e.g. with tokens distributed equally among voting members or with real money).[2][1] Under various sets of conditions, quadratic voting has been shown to be much more efficient than one-person-one-vote in aligning collective decisions with doing the most good for the most people. Quadratic voting (abbreviated as QV) is considered a promising alternative to existing democratic structures to solve some of the known failure modes of one-person-one-vote democracies. Quadratic voting is a variant of Cumulative voting in the class of Cardinal voting. It differs from Cumulative voting by altering "the cost" and "the vote" relation from linear to quadratic.
History of quadratic voting
The primary motivation for the creation of QV was that an optimal voting mechanism for decisions involving public goods was created in the 60's and 70's by Vickrey, Clarke, and Groves (VCG). [3][4][5] Despite high initial excitement about this mechanism, including Vickrey receiving a Nobel Prize for the work, the VCG mechanism was not sufficiently robust and practical to be implemented, and the mechanism found almost no practical adoption. Quadratic voting was intended by its inventors to deliver similarly optimal outcomes as the VCG mechanism while being easier for people to use and understand, and being more robust with respect to collusion and other practical considerations. A mechanism closely resembling quadratic voting was first published in 1977 by Groves and Ledyard, [6] with a similar mechanism being proposed by Hylland and Zeckhauser in 1980.[7] More recently, the mechanism of quadratic voting was re-discovered and refined into its present form in 2012 by E. Glen Weyl.[8][Note 1] Shortly thereafter, Weyl began working on QV with Steven Lalley and Eric Posner to further refine the formalism of quadratic voting and its applications.[1][9][10][2]
Many experiments at various scales [11][12][13] and simulations[14], and more in-depth theoretical analyses[15] have been done on quadratic voting since 2012. A major step in the adoption of quadratic voting for political purposes happened in April 2019, when the Democratic caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives used quadratic voting to make budgetary decisions. The experiment in Colorado was generally viewed as successful in that the budget allocations were reported to be reasonable, and the process was smooth.[16][17] Several organizations and communities have formed to promote adoption of quadratic voting concurrent with its continued academic research, including Democracy Earth (an online platform for quadratic voting), Collective Decision Engines (an app to facilitate QV adoption), and RadicalxChange (a community dedicated to decentralized forms of society and governance).
Concept of mechanism
Quadratic voting is based upon market principles, where each voter is given a budget of vote credits that they have the personal decisions and delegation to spend in order to influence the outcome of a range of decisions. If a participant has a strong preference for or against a specific decision, additional votes could be allocated to proportionally demonstrate the voter's preferences. A vote pricing rule determines the cost of additional votes, with each vote becoming increasingly more expensive. By increasing voter credit costs, this demonstrates an individual's preferences and interests toward the particular decision.[18] This money is eventually cycled back to the voters based upon per capita. Both Weyl and Lalley conducted research to demonstrate that this decision-making policy expedites efficiency as the number of voters increases.[19] The simplified formula on how quadratic voting functions is cost to the voter = (number of votes) ^2.[20]
The quadratic nature of the voting suggests that a voter can use their votes more efficiently by spreading them across many issues. For example, a voter with a budget of 16 vote credits can apply 1 vote credit to each of the 16 issues. However, if the individual has a stronger passion or sentiment on an issue, they could allocate 4 votes, at the cost of 16 credits, to the singular issue, effectively using up their entire budget. This mechanism towards voting demonstrates that there is a large incentive to buy and sell votes, or to trade votes. Using this anonymous ballot system provides identity protection from vote buying or trading since these exchanges cannot be verified by the buyer or trader.[21]
| Number of Votes | "Vote Credit" Cost |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 9 |
| 4 | 16 |
| 5 | 25 |
Criticisms of quadratic voting mechanisms
The most common objection to QV using real currency is that although it efficiently selects the outcome for which the population has the highest willingness to pay, willingness to pay is not directly proportional to the utility gained by the voting population. More specifically, the wealthy can afford to buy more votes relative to the rest of the population.[18][22][Note 2] This would distort voting outcomes to favor the wealthy in situations where voting is polarized on the basis of wealth. While the wealthy having undue influence on voting processes is not a unique feature of QV as a voting process, the direct involvement of money in the QV process has caused many to have concerns about this method.
Several proposals have been put forward to counter this concern, with the most popular being QV with an artificial currency. Usually, the artificial currency is distributed on a uniform basis, thus giving every individual an equal say, but allowing individuals to more flexibility align their voting behavior with their preferences. While many have objected to QV with real currency, there has been fairly broad-based approval of QV with an artificial currency.[22][23][9]
Other proposed methods for ameliorating objections to the use of money in real currency QV are:
- To reduce or eliminate the unequal representation due to wealth, QV could be coupled with a scheme that returns incomes from the QV process to the less-wealthy. One such scheme is proposed to by Weyl and Posner,[2]
- For situations where issues are polarized based on wealth, one-person-one-vote may be a better alternative, depending on how gains in efficiency from preference expression balance with distortions due to wealth polarization. The use of QV vs one-person-one-vote could be determined on an issue-by-issue basis,[9]
- Votes could be made more expensive to wealthy voters either for all issues, or for issues which are polarized on the basis of wealth.[9]
Other criticisms have been made, including: Majority rule based on individual person voting has the potential to lead to focus on only the most popular policies, so smaller policies would not be placed on as much significance. The larger proportion of voters who vote for a policy even with lesser passion compared to the minority proportion of voters who have higher preferences in a less popular topic can lead to a reduction of aggregate welfare. In addition, the complicating structures of contemporary democracy with institutional self-checking (ie., federalism, separation of powers) will continue to expand its policies, so quadratic voting is responsible for correcting any significant changes of one-person-one-vote policies.[10]
Contemporary applications
Quadratic voting was conducted in an experiment by the Democratic caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives in April 2019. Lawmakers used it to decide on their legislative priorities for the coming two years, selecting among 107 possible bills. Each member was given 100 virtual tokens that would allow them to put either 9 votes on one bill (as 81 virtual tokens represented 9 votes for one bill) and 3 votes on another bill or 5 votes each (25 virtual tokens) on 4 different bills. In the end, the winner was Senate Bill 85, the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, with a total of 60 votes.[17] From this demonstration of quadratic voting, no representative spent all 100 tokens on a single bill, and there was delineation between the discussion topics that were the favorites and also-rans. The computer interface and systematic structure was contributed by Democracy Earth, which is an open-source liquid democracy platform to foster governmental transparency.[24]
The results of this experiment has potential for future inquiries such as through EximChain, which is a platform focused upon scalable blockchain networks for increased public communication.[25] In addition to the Colorado House of Representatives, the Governance Know Your Customer process is integrated alongside quadratic voting in order to create identity checks and verify each individual voter's preferences during the election process.[26]
Similar projects
There are various projects that follow the general trends of innovation past the traditional paper ballot voting methodologies, including the ideologies of quadratic voting. Other practices that are currently in development include instant-runoff voting (IRV), which is centered on a ranked preferential voting method. Voters are allowed to rank their candidates by personal preference, and if a candidate wins over half of the votes as first choice, then the candidate wins. This method contains research that suggests IRV is one of the least manipulative voting methods.[27]
The optical scan voting system adds additional security on the paper ballot voting system by using an optical scanner in an electronic voting system. This method enables voters with disabilities or those who are not familiar with the voting system to cast their votes. This also reduces time to process votes, announce results, and allow more users to vote.[28] Most voters use electronic or optical-scan ballots and is recorded through computer memory.[29]
Power voting, also known as e-voting, gained popularity in Estonia with their municipal elections in 2005[30] and Estonian parliamentary election in 2007.[31] This is voting that can be conducted through the Internet, which is reported to be the most cost-efficient method that was found within Estonia's Electoral System.[32]
See also
- Penrose method
- Liquid democracy
- Cumulative voting
- Cardinal voting
- Vickrey–Clarke–Groves mechanism
- Mechanism design
- Democracy Earth - An organization that creates quadratic voting platforms.
- RadicalxChange – A community dedicated to the implementation and exploration of collective mechanisms to improve society, including QV.
References
- ^ a b c Lalley, Steven; Weyl, E. Glen (2017-12-24). "Quadratic Voting: How Mechanism Design Can Radicalize Democracy". Rochester, NY. SSRN 2003531.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c Posner, Eric A; Weyl, E. Glen (2018). Radical markets: uprooting capitalism and democracy for a just society. ISBN 9780691177502. OCLC 1030268293.
- ^ Vickrey, William (1961). "Counterspeculation, Auctions, and Competitive Sealed Tenders". The Journal of Finance. 16 (1): 8–37. doi:10.2307/2977633. JSTOR 2977633.
- ^ Clarke, Edward H. (1971). "Multipart pricing of public goods". Public Choice. 11: 17–33. doi:10.1007/BF01726210.
- ^ Groves, Theodore (1973). "Incentives in Teams". Econometrica. 41 (4): 617–631. doi:10.2307/1914085. JSTOR 1914085.
- ^ Groves, Theodore; Ledyard, John (1977). "Optimal Allocation of Public Goods: A Solution to the "Free Rider" Problem" (PDF). Econometrica. 45 (4): 783. doi:10.2307/1912672. JSTOR 1912672.
- ^ Hylland, Aanund; Zeckhauser, Richard (1980). "A mechanism for selecting public goods when preferences must be elicited". Harvard Kennedy School of Government Discussion Paper D, 70.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Weyl, E. Glen (2012). "Quadratic Vote Buying". doi:10.2139/ssrn.2003531.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c d Posner, Eric A.; Weyl, E. Glen (2017). "Quadratic voting and the public good: Introduction". Public Choice. 172 (1–2): 1–22. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0404-5.
- ^ a b Weyl, Eric Glen; Posner, Eric A. (2014). "Voting Squared: Quadratic Voting in Democratic Politics". University of Chicago Law School Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics.
- ^ Goeree, Jacob K.; Zhang, Jingjing (2012). "Electoral Engineering: One Man, One Vote Bid".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Cárdenas, J. C.; Mantilla, C.; Zárate, R. D (2014). "Purchasing votes without cash: Implementing quadratic voting outside the lab".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ . doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0416-1.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Weyl, E. Glen (2017). "The robustness of quadratic voting". Public Choice. 172 (1–2): 75–107. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0405-4.
- ^ Patty, John W.; Penn, Elizabeth Maggie (2017). "Uncertainty, polarization, and proposal incentives under quadratic voting". Public Choice. 172 (1–2): 109–124. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0406-3.
- ^ "Colorado Tried a New Way to Vote: Make People Pay—Quadratically". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
- ^ a b "A New Way of Voting That Makes Zealotry Expensive". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
- ^ a b Posner, Eric (2014-12-30). "Quadratic voting". ERIC POSNER. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
- ^ Weyl, E. Glen (2017-07-01). "The robustness of quadratic voting". Public Choice. 172 (1): 75–107. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0405-4. ISSN 1573-7101.
- ^ Ellenberg, Jordan (2015-01-16). "Saving Democracy With Quadratic Equations". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
- ^ Hasen, Richard L. (2000). "Vote Buying". California Law Review. 88 (5): 1323–1371. doi:10.2307/3481262. ISSN 0008-1221. JSTOR 3481262.
- ^ a b Laurence, Ben; Sher, Itai (2017). "Ethical considerations on quadratic voting". Public Choice. 172 (1–2): 195–222. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0413-4.
- ^ Ober, Josiah (2017). "Equality, legitimacy, interests, and preferences: Historical notes on Quadratic Voting in a political context". Public Choice. 172 (1–2): 223–232. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0409-0.
- ^ "Democracy Earth - Borderless governance". democracy.earth. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
- ^ "Eximchain - Supply Chains built on Blockchain". Eximchain. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
- ^ Zyx, Xyz (2019-08-30). "Quadratic Voting with Smart Contracts". Medium. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
- ^ Bartholdi, John. "Single transferable vote resists strategic voting" (PDF). Georgia Tech.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Mahoney, Matt. "Flawless Vote Counts". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
- ^ NW, 1615 L. St; Suite 800Washington; Inquiries, DC 20036USA202-419-4300 | Main202-857-8562 | Fax202-419-4372 | Media. "Most U.S. voters use electronic or optical-scan ballots". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Estonia forges ahead with e-vote". 2005-10-14. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
- ^ "Estonia to hold first national Internet election - CNET News". archive.is. 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
- ^ Krimmer, Robert; Duenas-Cid, David; Krivonosova, Iuliia; Vinkel, Priit; Koitmae, Arne (2018). Krimmer, Robert; Volkamer, Melanie; Cortier, Véronique; Goré, Rajeev; Hapsara, Manik; Serdült, Uwe; Duenas-Cid, David (eds.). "How Much Does an e-Vote Cost? Cost Comparison per Vote in Multichannel Elections in Estonia". Electronic Voting. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 11143. Springer International Publishing: 117–131. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00419-4_8. ISBN 9783030004194.
Notes
- ^ This paper has been revised several times, but was originally published online in 2012.
- ^ More formally, willingness to pay is approximately the utility gain experienced by the individual voting normalized by the marginal utility of money. The marginal utility of money decreasing with increasing wealth, and therefore willingness to pay is inflated for wealthy individuals.