Title of the course: Why first-past-the-post voting is the plight of democracy, and a possible solution
Instructor: Dr. Daniel Massart
Institution: Université de Montpellier
Dates: 14-20 July 2025
Prerequisites: Proofs can be hairy, but nothing more abstract than the pigeonhole principle will be used.
Level: High school, beginning undergraduate
Abstract: We’ll explain why first-past the post voting, which is used almost universally in democracies nowadays, leads to almost universal dissatisfaction and polarization. We’ll illustrate this with Arrow’s theorem, which explains why it could not be otherwise. Then we’ll propose one (among many) possible way around this problem : the majority judgement voting, introduced in 2010 by Balinski and Laraki.
Language: English
Textbook: https://imag.umontpellier.fr/~massart/enseignement.html