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There was that popular link being circulated a while back... Democracy does not aim to select the optimal candidate but to minimize the damage caused. The candi
by ionforce 14y ago
There was that popular link being circulated a while back... Democracy does not aim to select the optimal candidate but to minimize the damage caused. The candidate chosen is the "least bad", not the most optimal.
- Tichy 14y agoIsn't "least bad" equivalent to optimal?
- rosser 14y agoIf your selection function optimizes for minimized damage, not maximized improvement, sure.
- JoshTriplett 14y agoSame scale, different sign, and varying by person. One person's maximized "improvement" is another person's maximized damage. Sometimes "do nothing" is the best we can hope for, because the alternative is worse. See also Duverger's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law
- Zakharov 14y agoI think in this case "least bad" means "least bad in the worst case".