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Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Cycle? Evidence from 36 Elections

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  • Scott L. Feld
  • Bernard Grofman

Abstract

We analyze 36 elections held by professional associations, unions, and non-profit organizations in England and Ireland. We show that these elections manifest a remarkably high degree of transitivity, with a Condorcet (majority) winner always found. Moreover, ordering alternatives according to their Borda score provides a transitive majority ordering in nearly all instances.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott L. Feld & Bernard Grofman, 1992. "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Cycle? Evidence from 36 Elections," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 4(2), pages 231-237, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:4:y:1992:i:2:p:231-237
    DOI: 10.1177/0951692892004002007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Feld, Scott L. & Grofman, Bernard, 1988. "Ideological Consistency as a Collective Phenomenon," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 773-788, September.
    2. Feld, Scott L. & Grofman, Bernard, 1986. "On the Possibility of Faithfully Representative Committees," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(3), pages 863-879, September.
    3. Inglehart, Ronald, 1985. "Aggregate Stability and Individual-Level Flux in Mass Belief Systems: The Level of Analysis Paradox," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 97-116, March.
    4. Richard Niemi & Herbert Weisberg, 1974. "Single-peakedness and guttman scales: Concept and measurement," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 33-45, December.
    5. Chamberlin, John R. & Cohen, Michael D., 1978. "Toward Applicable Social Choice Theory: A Comparison of Social Choice Functions under Spatial Model Assumptions," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 1341-1356, December.
    6. Grofman, Bernard & Feld, Scott L., 1988. "Rousseau's General Will: A Condorcetian Perspective," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(2), pages 567-576, June.
    7. Scott Feld & Bernard Grofman, 1988. "The Borda count in n-dimensional issue space," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 167-176, November.
    8. Scott Feld & Bernard Grofman, 1986. "Research note Partial single-peakedness: An extension and clarification," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 71-80, January.
    9. Gordon Tullock, 1981. "Why so much stability," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 189-204, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kurrild-Klitgaard, Peter, 2001. "An Empirical Example of the Condorcet Paradox of Voting in a Large Electorate," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 107(1-2), pages 135-145, April.
    2. Florian Brandl & Felix Brandt & Christian Stricker, 2022. "An analytical and experimental comparison of maximal lottery schemes," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(1), pages 5-38, January.
    3. James F. Adams & Ernest W. Adams, 2000. "The Geometry of Voting Cycles," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 12(2), pages 131-153, April.

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