Condorcet's theory of voting
Condorcet believed that the purpose of voting is to make a choice that is “best” for society. According to his view, there is one choice that is objectively best, another that is second-best, and so forth. Unfortunately, voters sometimes make mistakes ; they misperceive what is best. In designing a voting rule, therefore, the objective should be to choose the alternative that is most likely to be best. Condorcet solved this problem using a form of maximum likelihood estimation. The procedure that...