User:Cymru/Independence of equivalent candidates criterion: Difference between revisions

The '''Independence of Equivalent Candidates criterion''' was devised in 2005 by Thomas Smith. It was inspired by the inadequate definition of the [[Strategic nomination|independence of clones]] criterion which does not properly address rated voting systems and falsely presumes that equivalentcorrelated candidates are identicalnecessarily or very similarequivalent to each other. This criterion is a theoretical, rather than a practical criterion, and is used to describe the susceptibility of voting methods to the influence of candidates that are perceived by all voters as equivalent.

Equivalent candidates are a group of candidates that are supportively ranked in adjacent positions, where equal ranking is not allowed, or equally ranked or rated, where equality is allowed, on ''every'' cast ballot. Thus, an approved and a disapproved candidate can never be "clones" as they are not rated equivalentlyequally.