Mathematics and the Analysis of Fairness in Political Processes

Sunday, February 21, 2010: 1:30 PM-4:30 PM
Room 11A (San Diego Convention Center)
Politics may be viewed as the science of aggregating the preferences of individuals to determine policies to govern the collective activities of society. Science, and mathematics in particular, as applied by economists, political scientists, lawyers, computer scientists, and mathematicians, aids in the analysis and development of political processes, including voting, apportionment, and redistricting, to represent members of society fairly. Geometry, topology, game theory, discrete mathematics, and voting theory are part of the machinery and the foundation of our political processes and provide the abstract setting to understand how well our political processes work and to propose modifications and new solutions. In this symposium, mathematics will be used to analyze fairness in voting (elections for one or more candidates), apportionment (apportioning delegates in the Democratic primary, representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, and seats in parliamentary systems), and redistricting (determining boundaries of political regions within states). Legal, social, and practical aspects and implications will also be discussed.
Organizer:
Michael A. Jones, Mathematical Reviews
Discussant:
Michael A. Jones, Mathematical Reviews
Speakers:
Donald G. Saari, University of California
How Can We Get a "Fair" Voting System?
Steven J. Brams, New York University
Satisfaction Approval Voting
Christopher P. Chambers, California Institute of Technology
A Measure of Bizarreness
Zeph Landau, University of California
A Fair Division Solution to the Problem of Redistricting
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