Consider an election with three candidates: X, Y, and Z. Suppose 52 percent of voters prefer X over Y and Y over Z, 48 percent of voters prefer Y over Z and Z over X, and 4 percent of voters prefer Z over Y and Y over X. The voting system is such that there is one round of voting, and the candidate with the most votes wins. If every voter votes for their most preferred candidate, candidate X will win. This voting system does not meet the criteria for an ideal voting system because the _______ criterion is violated.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independence of irrelevant alternatives criterion is violated because the presence of candidate Z affects the outcome between X and Y, even though Z is not the most preferred candidate by the majority.

Consider an Election with Three Candidates: X, Y, and Z