This year’s Republican primaries could easily shake your faith in democracy. The race whittled a promising field of 17 candidates down to a showdown between the two candidates with the highest unfavorability ratings in national polls. …
The failure of democracy to provide a coherent ranking of political hopefuls is a central insight of the sub-field of economics and political science known as social choice theory. The issue is neatly illustrated by Condorcet’s paradox, which shows that a shifting set of coalitions can make a collective body appear that it has no idea what it wants.
Here’s how. CONT.
Justin Wolfers (U. of Michigan), New York Times