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Daily Syllabus - Math 217 Voting Theory - Spring 2010

Be sure to check back, because this may be updated during the semester.
Last modified: Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 1:14 PM

The items in blue are the reading assignments for the day. The primary readings for the course are:

  • Felsenthal and Machover, "Enlargement of the EU and Weighted Voting in its Council of Ministers"
  • Jones, "The Geometry behind Paradoxes of Voting Power"
  • Balinski and Young, Fair Representation
  • Bradberry, "A Geometric View of Some Apportionment Paradoxes"
  • Balinski, "Fair Majority Voting (or How to Eliminate Gerrymandering)"
  • Alvarez-Rivera, "The Republic of South Africa Electoral System"
  • Saari, Chaotic Elections! A Mathematician Looks at Voting (on reserve in the library)

Monday Wednesday
1/27 Welcome to Voting Theory
2/1 Penrose measure and Banzhaf index
RA: Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 1 		2/3 Treaty of Nice and proposed EU Constitution
RA: Reread Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 1
2/8 Paradoxes of power indices
RA: Jones		 2/10 Geometry of paradoxes
RA: Reread Jones
Homework due
2/15 Two-tiered systems and Equitability
RA: Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 2 		2/17 Majoritarianism
RA: Reread Felsenthal & Machover, Chap 2
Homework due
2/22 Introduction to methods of apportionment
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 1-4 		2/24 Apportionment paradoxes
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 5-6
Homework due
3/1 Methods of Dean and Hill
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 8-10 		3/3 Evaluating the apportionment methods
RA: Reread Balinski & Young, Chaps 8-10
Title for Book Review due
3/8 Geometry of apportionment paradoxes
RA: Bradberry		 3/10 Geometry of apportionment paradoxes
RA: Reread Bradberry
Exam 1 due
3/15 Spring Break 3/17 Spring Break
3/22 Proportional representation
RA: Balinski & Young, Chaps 11-12 		3/24 PR in South Africa
RA: Alvarez-Rivera
Progress report on Book Review due
3/29 Addressing gerrymandering
RA: Balinski, "Fair Majority Voting"
      Keohane, "Squareville, USA" 		3/31 Elections with three candidates
RA: Saari, Sections 1.2, 2.1, and 2.2 (pp 17 - 45)
Topic and references for Project due
4/5 The representation triangle and procedure line
RA: Saari, Preface and Sections 2.2 and 2.3 (pp 40 - 52)
4/7 Guest Lecture by Professor Marcus Allen
RA: TBA
Homework due
4/12 A fundamental decomposition of R6
RA: Saari, Section 5.3 (pp 129 - 135)
Outlines of paper and presentation for Project due 		4/14 Creating and decomposing profiles
RA: Reread Saari, Section 5.3 (pp 129 - 135)
Homework due
Book Review due 4/16
4/19 More on creating and decomposing profiles 4/21 Elections with more than three candidates
RA: Saari, Section 2.5 and Chapter 3 .3 (pp 60 - 89)
Homework due
4/26 Runoffs, dropping candidates, and Dodgson's Method 4/28 Selecting committees
Exam 2 due
Paper for Project due 4/30
5/3 Student presentations 5/5 Student presentations
5/10 Takehome Final Exam due at 4:00

Last Modified: Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 1:14 PM
Maintained by: ratliff_thomas@wheatoncollege.edu