Consensus and Climate Change

This paper explores ethical issues raised by quadratic voting. We compare quadratic voting to majority voting from two ethical perspectives: the perspective of utilitarianism and that of democratic theory. From a utilitarian standpoint, the comparison is ambiguous: if voter preferences are independent of wealth, then quadratic voting outperforms majority voting, but if voter preferences are polarized by wealth, then majority voting may be superior. From the standpoint of democratic theory, we argue that assessments in terms of efficiency are too narrow. Voting institutions and political institutions more generally face a legitimacy requirement. We argue that in the presence of inequalities of wealth, any vote buying mechanism, including quadratic voting, will have a difficult time meeting this requirement.

El artículo estudia la Paradoja de Condorcet aplicada al funcionamiento del Cabildo Cantonal de Cuenca – Ecuador. La votación realizada al interior de un espacio político obedece a la regla de mayorías aún cuando su decisión involucre el normal desenvolvimiento organizacional. Los hallazgos determinan que por varios años las tarifas de agua potable no fueron modificadas pese a que ETAPA- EP presentaba necesidades de dinero y veía comprometida su operación. Se reconoce la Paradoja de Condorcet cuando las preferencias de los votantes son cíclicas aún a pesar de que la preferencia individual sea contraria a la grupal. El estudio presenta análisis de tipo histórico - cualitativo. Palabras clave: Empresa de agua, gobierno local, decisiones sociales, economía, política, fijación de tarifas. URL: http://revistas.uta.edu.ec/erevista/index.php/bcoyu/article/view/719

The problem of global climate change is one of the most important problems of society. Such relevance is due to the fact that the change in climatic parameters has a significant impact on the economic sphere, the ecological situation, social and political life, and the construction industry. The change in the parameters of climate systems has long been beyond doubt. In recent years, due to the perceived threat of global climate warming, interest in long-term interannual climate fluctuations has increased significantly. Therefore, one of the unquestionably relevant tasks is the monitoring of trends in changes in climatic indicators at the local (regional) level. It is these observations on a regional scale that allow us to detect cyclical fluctuations in meteorological values and further judge the change in the Earth's climate in general. When building urban quarters in difficult natural and climatic conditions, along with urban planning and architectural and planning methods of organizing residential structures, one of the key points is the correct selection of fencing materials and structures. Special attention should be paid to their physical properties, thermal conductivity, specific resistance, optical reflectivity, etc. It is also necessary to take into account the location of the construction site, because due to macro- and micro-scale climate-forming factors (radiation conditions, wind regime, form of meso- and microrelief, vegetation, soil, close proximity to the sea, surrounding buildings, etc.) and their due to joint influence in different areas of the city, the difference in temperature and humidity can be significant. The article examines the peculiarities of the manifestation of climatic changes for the city of Kyiv in the context of engineering and construction adaptation and the selection of building materials to create more comfortable living conditions for the residents of the metropolis. It was established that during the last decades in the city the average annual air temperature increased by 0.7–1.2°С, compared to the climatic norm. The most significant increase in the average monthly air temperature in the modern period in the city is observed in the winter and summer months. According to calculations, the average annual temperature will rise gradually and increase by an average of 2.0–2.5°С. On the basis of this, the necessity of conducting further research, creating scientific and practical recommendations, especially in the conditions of modern megacities, which are a factor in climate formation, has been proven. The article analyzes the impact of changes in climatic factors on the life cycle of buildings.

Opposing candidates for a political office often differ in their professional backgrounds and previous political experience, leading to both real and perceived differences in political capabilities. We analyze a formal model in which candidates with different productivities in two policy areas compete for voters by choosing how much money or effort they would allocate to each area if elected. The model has a unique equilibrium that differs substantially from the standard median voter model. Although candidates compete for the support of a moderate voter type, this cutoff voter differs from the expected median voter. Moreover, no voter type except the cutoff voter is indifferent between the candidates in equilibrium. The model also predicts that candidates respond to changes in the preferences of voters in a very rigid way. From a welfare perspective, candidates are “excessively moderate”: almost certainly, a majority of voters would prefer that the winning candidate focus more on his or her strength.

In one-dimensional environments with single-peaked preferences we consider social welfare functions satisfying Arrow''s requirements, i.e. weak Pareto and independence of irrelevant alternatives. When the policy space is a one-dimensional continuum such a welfare function is determined by a collection of 2N strictly quasi-concave preferences and a tie-breaking rule. As a corollary we obtain that when the number of voters is odd, simple majority voting is transitive if and only if each voters preference is strictly quasi-concave.

Coastal marine environments provide livelihoods as billions of people around the world depend greatly on sustainability efforts in the Blue Economy. In this study, we investigated how stakeholders from important Blue Economy sectors along the German North Sea coast perceive the impacts of climate change on their daily work life and the growth of the Blue Economy. In a two-stage approach we first conducted two stakeholder workshops with representatives from the regional sea food sector, science, NGOs and local authorities, in order to identify important issues linked to climate change affecting environment, society, economy and policy. In the second stage, we conducted semi-structured interviews with key knowledge holders from the Blue Economy, to evaluate and validate the most important issues identified during the first stage, and the impacts on the respective sectors. The workshop participants identified perceptible effects of climate change on their marine environment. Early career scientists showed that they possess a clear focus on measures for climate change adaptation, transdisciplinary approaches and knowledge transfer. The interviews revealed that the climate change effects could be perceived as both negative and positive, depending on the sector. Other issues, especially political decisions and developments are perceived to have a greater immediate impact on the Blue Economy than the slow progress of climate change effects. Additionally, increased human activities, in the form of new or intensified uses like marine renewable energy generation, have a greater influence and lead to conflicts between the Blue Economy sectors. Our study showed that economic and societal stakeholders in Germanys North Sea region are aware of climate change and already perceive its effects on their businesses. Synergies and conflicts between the sectors and political decisions might influence sustainable growth of the Blue Economy in highly contested regions, such as the North Sea basin, much stronger than the effects of climate change. This calls for a more flexible and adaptive approach to policymaking, taking into account the changing environmental, social and economic realities.

Majority voting with single-crossing preferences

The aim of this study was to establish an international, interorganisational consensus on wound infection terminology. This project consisted of definition scoping and a Delphi process to produce a consensus glossary for 18 wound infection terms. Recent guidelines/consensus documents were reviewed to identify 2-4 definitions for each term. An online consensus process was undertaken using the RAND Appropriateness Method, a consensus method for panels to reach agreement. International wound organisations nominated experts to participate, from whom 21 participants were selected to represent different organisations, geographic regions and disciplines. In the first consensus round, each term was presented alongside 2-3 definitions and participants nominated their preferred definition, with the majority vote used to select a baseline definition. The consensus process then proceeded, with participants using a 9-point Likert scale to score their level of agreement or disagreement with the definition for each term. Participants also provided a justification outlining the reason behind their rating. At the end of each round, an index was calculated to provide a quantitative evaluation indicating whether agreement or disagreement had been reached. Reasoning statements were summarised and the definitions were adjusted to incorporate concepts identified by participants. The adjusted definition was presented in the next consensus round, together with the reasoning statements. Terms for which a final definition was not achieved in three consensus rounds were finalised with preferential voting using 2-3 definitions that had reached consensus. The project generated a glossary of wound infection terms, endorsed through participation of 15 international organisations, for dissemination of guidelines and clinical decision-making/teaching tools.

In some political and science circles (including Poland) there are articulated views on the crucial role of electoral systems in the process of political competition. Therefore they express the opinion about prevalence of certain electoral arrangements in terms of the implementation of certain political preferences. Often hopes for the reform of the political system are associated with the changes of the electoral systems. In the Great Britain (the United Kingdom) and other English-speaking countries citizens have formed community associations whose aim is the change from the majority to the proportional electoral system. In the effect we have more proportional election result and extension of real electoral bid to a larger number of political parties. On the other hand, in Poland, we have seen the opposite trend. Proponents of single-mandate constituencies depreciate the system of proportional representation. They express the belief in the positive effects of the majority system in the parliamentary elections. Radicals endorse the idea that only those electoral solutions are synonymous with electoral democracy and they are a way to reduce the pathologies of political life. In terms of these issues there have arisen many misconceptions and political myths. The main purpose of this article is to pay attention to trends in the areas of electoral reforms in the world. The author tries to answer the following research questions: 1) What electoral systems were popular in the world in individual periods from the 19th to the 21st centuries? 2) What tendencies appear in changes of electoral systems in the recent years? 3) What is the being of popularity phenomenon of mixed-member electoral systems? In the recent years the most popular electoral systems are: proportional representation with open lists and majority rules in single member-districts.

Can Judges Make a Difference?: The Scope for Judicial Decisions on Climate Change in New Zealand Domestic Law

The recent changes in Australia’s climate, the likelihood of further changes over the next decades to centuries, and the likely significant impacts of these changes on the Australian livestock industries, provide increasing urgency to explore adaptation options more effectively. Climate and atmospheric changes are likely to impact on the quantity and reliability of forage production; forage quality; thermal stress on livestock; water demands for both animal needs and for growing forage; pest, disease and weed challenges; land degradation processes; and various social and economic aspects including trade. Potential adaptation options are available for moderate climate changes, with these often being variations of existing climate risk management strategies. However, to date there are few Australian examples where these adaptations have been assessed systematically on any scale (e.g. enterprise, regional, whole of industry or national). Nor have many studies been undertaken in a way that (i) effectively harness industry knowledge, (ii) undertake climate change analyses in the framework of existing operational systems, or (iii) assess climate change in the context of other socioeconomic or technical changes. It is likely that there are limits to the effectiveness of existing adaptations under more severe climate changes. In such cases more systemic changes in resource allocation need considering, such as targeted diversification of production systems and livelihoods. Dealing with the many barriers to effective adaptation will require ‘mainstreaming’ climate change into policies covering a range of scales, responsibilities and issues. This mainstreaming will facilitate the development of comprehensive, dynamic and long lasting policy solutions. The integrative nature of climate change problems requires science to include integrative elements in the search for solutions: a willingness to apply integrated rather than disciplinary science and a strengthening of the interface with decision-makers.

Tax incidence, majority voting and capital market integration

Why Do Education Vouchers Fail?

The electing framework or casting a ballot framework is the arrangement of decides that decide how decisions and political race decision are directed in the method of the outcomes that must be resolved. Political race plays an essential occasion during a cutting edge popular government yet huge areas of society all throughout the planet don't confide in a political decision framework, which would be a significant worry for the majority rules system. Besides the world's biggest majority rule governments like India, the US Japan actually experience the ill effects of misrepresentation casting a ballot framework. Political race control, polling form gear and hacking of electronic democratic machine are the fundamental issues inside the current democratic framework. Building and electronic democratic framework that fulfills the lawful necessities of gathering has been a tested for quite a while. The disseminated record innovation is an energizing mechanical in this innovative world. These blockchain advancements offers an endless scope of utilizations taking benefits of sharing political economy. In this paper , the proposed framework is to store the voting form data as a blockhub for every single elector and move the citizens vote to all or some other ''hub''. Our proposed framework is cost productive in contrast with the typical electronic democratic machines.

Climate change, biodiversity losses, global health threats, changing recreation patterns are but a few of the many challenges that currently, and for some time to come, the world has to cope with. To address these challenges and to mitigate some of them, ecosystem and particularly conservation management increasingly have to adopt strategies never considered before. One such new possibility is crowdsourcing, a variant of public consultation, where a number of experts are invited and, for example, asked to mark trees that – in their opinion – should be removed in order to improve or restore a forest ecosystem. This type of crowdsourcing has recently been carried out in many European countries and overseas as part of what commonly is referred to as marteloscope. In this paper, we addressed the question of how the rating or voting of such a crowd of experts is best aggregated to obtain one final, consolidated list of trees to be evicted. Standard approval voting often leads to a domination by the majority of voters and important contributions by minority experts are largely ignored. To avoid this and to better represent the pluralism of expertise and opinions in matters, where currently no best-practice guidelines exist, we analysed the effects of three proportional multiwinner rules used in political science by applying them to 50 marteloscope experiments in Great Britain. Our results indicated that proportional rules – particularly in situations where the invited expert markers disagree – achieved a better representation of different opinions than standard approval voting. Proportional rules also act as a safety mechanism reducing risks when the majority decisions prove inappropriate and as a consequence forest development could completely go astray.