telegraph: The EU constitution is 'unfair', according to game theorists:
{FYI: story first appeared on PhysicsWeb on May 28, 2004}
The European Constitution is unscientific, will not achieve the objective of "one person one vote", and will give Germany undue influence, according to a new analysis. <>
The claims, in the journal Physics World, are made by Dr Karol Zyczkowski, a physicist, and Dr Wojciech Slomczynski, a mathematician, both from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and are backed by about 50 scientists across Europe.
Overall, the constitution favours the biggest and smallest states in a systematic way. "The medium-sized states are losers," said Dr Slomczynski. "The vote of a citizen in one country ought to be the same as for any other member state and this is strongly violated both in the voting system of the Treaty of Nice and in the constitution.<>
The scientists use a branch of mathematics called game theory to calculate how much power each country will have to sway the Council of Ministers if the new constitution is adopted, where a double majority is required to pass a vote – more than 15 states (out of 25, with two more soon) and 65 per cent of the bloc's population.
They report that the UK's voting power will drop from being the same as that of Germany, when the Treaty of Nice is introduced in November, to about 70 per cent of German voting power under the new constitution, reflecting the relative population size.
Although it seems right to weight votes by the population, it gives an individual in a big country more power than one in a small country, according to game theory analysis of fair voting published in 1949 by Lionel Penrose (father of the eminent British mathematician, Sir Roger).
He pointed out that voting power is not the same thing as voting weight: in a body with two members, one with 51 votes and one with 49, the latter appears to have almost the same weight but ends up with no power if there is a majority vote rule.
To represent true voting power, Penrose devised the "square root law", where the influence of each country is proportional to the square root of its population size.
The scientists have adopted this law to propose what has been nicknamed "the Jagiellonian Compromise": EU citizens would have the same voting power if each member state were given a weight that was proportional to the square root of its population, and if new legislation required 62 per cent of the votes at the council. The result would be to give all citizens equal influence, regardless of their home country.
related items:
Voting in the EU: The square root system of Penrose and a critical point
(Karol Zyczkowski, Wojciech Slomczynski)
Open Letter to the EU - Scientists for a Democratic Europe
{FYI: story first appeared on PhysicsWeb on May 28, 2004}
The European Constitution is unscientific, will not achieve the objective of "one person one vote", and will give Germany undue influence, according to a new analysis. <>
The claims, in the journal Physics World, are made by Dr Karol Zyczkowski, a physicist, and Dr Wojciech Slomczynski, a mathematician, both from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and are backed by about 50 scientists across Europe.
Overall, the constitution favours the biggest and smallest states in a systematic way. "The medium-sized states are losers," said Dr Slomczynski. "The vote of a citizen in one country ought to be the same as for any other member state and this is strongly violated both in the voting system of the Treaty of Nice and in the constitution.<>
The scientists use a branch of mathematics called game theory to calculate how much power each country will have to sway the Council of Ministers if the new constitution is adopted, where a double majority is required to pass a vote – more than 15 states (out of 25, with two more soon) and 65 per cent of the bloc's population.
They report that the UK's voting power will drop from being the same as that of Germany, when the Treaty of Nice is introduced in November, to about 70 per cent of German voting power under the new constitution, reflecting the relative population size.
Although it seems right to weight votes by the population, it gives an individual in a big country more power than one in a small country, according to game theory analysis of fair voting published in 1949 by Lionel Penrose (father of the eminent British mathematician, Sir Roger).
He pointed out that voting power is not the same thing as voting weight: in a body with two members, one with 51 votes and one with 49, the latter appears to have almost the same weight but ends up with no power if there is a majority vote rule.
To represent true voting power, Penrose devised the "square root law", where the influence of each country is proportional to the square root of its population size.
The scientists have adopted this law to propose what has been nicknamed "the Jagiellonian Compromise": EU citizens would have the same voting power if each member state were given a weight that was proportional to the square root of its population, and if new legislation required 62 per cent of the votes at the council. The result would be to give all citizens equal influence, regardless of their home country.
related items:
Voting in the EU: The square root system of Penrose and a critical point
(Karol Zyczkowski, Wojciech Slomczynski)
Open Letter to the EU - Scientists for a Democratic Europe
Mahalanobis - am 2004-07-25 09:34 - Rubrik: game theory
