The Prisoners’ Dilemma and Third-Party Voting
Link: https://satyagraha.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/the-prisoners-dilemma-and-third-party-voting/
One of the biggest problems I have with American politics is the two-party system, and I thought that one of the issues leading to a lack of votes for 3rd parties could be explained by the prisoner’s dilemma (illustrated by the last table in the linked article). In this scenario, the best option (representing neither of the prisoners confessing) is if both Democrat and Republican voters instead vote for a 3rd party which better aligns with their interests. This represents the best outcome for every voter involved, as it will lead to people voting for candidates who will more closely match their views, and will also lead to a resurgence of more viable 3rd parties.
However, in real life this is rarely how people judge how to cast their votes. Generally, Democrat and Republican voters are afraid to break rank because if the voters of one party vote 3rd party, and the voters in another part stick to party lines, this means that voters who voted 3rd party will end up with the short end of the stick. This incentivizes voters to stick to party lines and vote for candidates who are “good enough” (which represents the worst option of the prisoners dilemma in which both of the prisoners confess), reaffirming the two party system and preventing the possibility of more viable 3rd parties which can represent the views of the people better.
So how do we break this dilemma we are stuck in and prevent the worst option from repeating itself election after election? One big way would be to change the current voting methods used in the U.S. Right now, we use a system called “first-past-the-post” voting, in which voters simply choose one candidate on the ballot, and the candidate with the plurality of votes wins. Instead, we could use a Ranked-Choice Voting, in which voters rank the candidates on a ballot from most to least preferred. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote in the first round, the last place candidate is eliminated, and the voters who voted for said candidate will have their votes count for their 2nd most preferred candidate. This continues until a candidate has the majority of the vote. A system such as this would allow people to vote for 3rd parties without worrying about the possibility that, if their first-choice candidate doesn’t win, then a candidate who they very much disagree with will not “automatically” win because every voter is allowed to have multiple preferences.
Of course, its easy to talk about solutions, but much harder to see these solutions be put into practice. The best outcome for all of us is if Americans begin to see the advantages of having more political choices, and start demanding the changes needed to make this possible.