Mathematics and Democracy: Voting Systems and Collective Choice

Directors: B. Simeone, F. Pukelsheim
Invited speakers: F.Aleskerov, M.Balinski, S.Brams, P.Edelman, E. Giovannini, M.Kilgour, J.Nagel, H. Nurmi, F.Pukelsheim, V.Ramirez,D.Saari, M.Salles, M.I.Shamos, B.Simeone
The study of Voting Systems and Collective Choice lies at the crossroad of social sciences and quantitative ones. While the former ones focus on the development and evolution of electoral systems in the context of the changing needs and political patterns of society, the latter ones are concerned with the formal study of electoral mechanisms, whose underlying axioms are meant to reflect universal principles such as equity, representation, stability, and consistency.
Different quantitative approaches to the study of electoral systems have been developed: game-theoretic, decision-theoretic, statistical, probabilistic, combinatorial, geometric, and optimization ones. Electronic voting protocols and other security issues have recently been devoted a great deal of attention. The invited speakers, representing many different countries, are all prominent scholars from these disciplines. The Workshop aims to bring together their different viewpoints and to stress the role of mathematics towards a deeper understanding, a rational assessment and a sound design of voting procedures. Quantitative approaches often offer a powerful tool to detect inconsistencies or poor performance in actual systems. Applications to concrete settings such as EU, American Congress, regional, and committee voting will be discussed.
Mathematicians, engineers, economists, statisticians, computer scientists, and quantitatively oriented political and social scientists will find the Workshop not only of the highest quality, but also eclectic, open to discussion, and mind-provoking.