Centrism: Difference between revisions
expand on the ambiguity of the term
('''Centrist''' is frequently used to describe the consensus candidate. Category:Vocabulary) |
Psephomancy (talk | contribs) (expand on the ambiguity of the term) |
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'''Centrist''' is frequently used to describe the [[consensus]] candidate. This is an ambiguous term, however, because it is also frequently used to refer to the center of a given political spectrum or compass, and these are not necessarily the same concept.
For example, [[FairVote]] uses the term in reference to a [[Condorcet winner]], arguing that it's good that [[Instant-runoff voting|IRV]] doesn't always elect the CW:
<blockquote>Condorcet winners are centrist by nature, regardless of the preferences of the electorate. ... So choosing the centrist candidate every time is just falling into the fallacy of the middle ground.</blockquote>
But the Condorcet winner is only "centrist" relative to the opinions of the electorate. If we assume a 2D [[Political spectrum|political compass]], for instance, and an authoritarian-left political party holds an internal election, the Condorcet winner is not going to be "centrist" relative to the entire compass. They will be "centrist" relative to the party: a good representative of the party's ideology as a whole. If an electorate's political ideology changes over time, the Condorcet winner moves along with them, while always remaining "centrist" relative to them.
(The same concepts also apply to the [[utilitarian winner]]. In most real-world elections, the two winners are the same candidate.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pivato|first=Marcus|date=2015-08-01|title=Condorcet meets Bentham|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304406815000518|journal=Journal of Mathematical Economics|language=en|volume=59|pages=58–65|doi=10.1016/j.jmateco.2015.04.006|issn=0304-4068}}</ref>)
= References =
<references />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]
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