Political Hypotheses and Mathematical Conclusions
Future of Economic Design, (Laslier, Moulin, Sanver, and Zwicker, eds.),Springer-Verlag, Forthcoming
7 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2017 Last revised: 24 Jul 2018
Date Written: August 12, 2017
Abstract
When modeling or analyzing democratic processes, mathematicians may find themselves in unfamiliar territory: political philosophy. How we proceed mathematically may depend heavily on our conception of representative democracy and theory of government. I will give a number of illustrations to show how contestable political principles lead to differing mathematical analyses. Our mathematical conclusions are inherently governed by our political hypotheses.
Keywords: voting power, Banzhaf, districting, gerrymandering, one person-one vote, Evenwel v. Abbott, apportionment
JEL Classification: C65, C71, D72
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation