The Condorcet jury theorem and extension of the franchise with rationally ignorant voters

Ruth Ben-Yashar, Mor Zahavi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Condorcet Jury Theorem (CJT), which provides a justification for democracy, is based on voters who are imperfectly informed insofar as they know the correct policy with a probability of less than one but greater than one-half. We reassess the consequences of the CJT for democracy when extension of the franchise adds equal numbers of non-distinguishable informed and uninformed voters to the collective decision making group. Uninformed voters vote correctly with probability one-half. We show that adding equal numbers of informed and uninformed voters maintains the CJT conclusion that enlarging the group of decision makers increases the likelihood of a correct collective decision.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)435-443
Number of pages9
JournalPublic Choice
Volume148
Issue number3-4
Early online date9 Jun 2010
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2011

Keywords

  • Condorcet jury theorem
  • Expressive voting
  • Franchise
  • Rational ignorance

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