Math 217 - Voting Theory - Fall 2005
Syllabus
The items in dark red are the reading assignments (RA) for each day. The primary readings for the course are
Enlargement of the EU and Weighted Voting in its Council of Ministers by Felsenthal & Machover. Available at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/VPP/
Fair Representation by Balinski & Young
Chaotic Elections by Saari
| |
Monday | Wednesday | |
| 8/31 | Welcome to Voting Theory | ||
| 9/5 | Labor Day | 9/7 | Penrose measure and Banzhaf index
RA: Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 1 |
| 9/12 | Penrose square root rule The majority deficit RA: Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 2 |
9/14 | Proposal for the Council of Ministers of the EU
RA: Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 2 Homework Due |
| 9/19 | Supreme Court rulings addressing voting power
RA: Abate v. Mundt, 403 US 182 (1971) Board of Estimate v. Morris, 489 US 688 (1989) |
9/21 | Power in the Electoral College
Homework Due |
| 9/26 | Methods of apportionment
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 1-4 |
9/28 | The Alabama & population paradoxes Bias toward large or small states RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 5-6 Homework Due |
| 10/3 | Resolving paradoxes, eliminating bias, and staying with the quota
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 8-10 |
10/5 | Federal and proportional representation systems
RA: Reread Balinski & Young, Chaps 8-10 Homework Due |
| 10/10 | Fall Break | 10/12 | A formal framework for apportionment
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 11-12 |
| 10/17 | Guest lecture by Prof. Allen
RA: Handout |
10/19 | Proportional Representation in South Africa
RA: Handout Exam 1 Due |
| 10/24 | Elections with three candidates
RA: Saari, Sects 1.2, 2.1 & 2.2 (pp 17-45) |
10/26 | The representation triangle, procedure line, and AV hull
RA: Saari, Preface, Sects 2.2-2.4 (pp 40-60) Topic for Project Due |
| 10/31 | The approval voting controversy
RA: Handouts |
11/2 | A fundamental decomposition of R6
RA: Saari, Sects 5.3 (pp 129-135) Homework Due Rough outline of paper due Redistricting Simulation paper due Fri 11/4 |
| 11/7 | Creating and decomposing profiles
RA: Reread Saari, Sects 5.3 (pp 129-135) |
11/9 | More on creating and decomposing profiles |
| 11/14 | Extending to four candidate elections
RA: Saari, Sect 2.5 & Chapter 3 (pp 60-89) |
11/16 | Dropping candidates and runoff elections RA: Reread Saari, Sect 2.5 & Chapter 3 (pp 60-89) Exam 2 Due |
| 11/21 | Inconsistency Theorems Rough draft of paper due |
11/23 | Thanksgiving Break |
| 11/28 | Arrow's Theorem | 11/30 | What does Arrow's Theorem really mean?
Paper due |
| 12/5 | Student Presentations | 12/7 | Student Presentations |
Final Exam Due Saturday, December 17, 12:00 pm
Last Modified May 7, 2009 10:14 PM