Models and Reality: the Curios Case of the Absent Abstention

Dan S. Felsenthal and Moshé Machover
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Dan S. Felsenthal: University of Haifa, Department of Political Science, Haifa, Israel

Homo Oeconomicus, 2002, vol. 19, 297-310

Abstract: We discuss two inter-related puzzling features of the literature on a priori voting power. First, the mathematical model used in virtually all this literature does not recognize abstention as an option distinct from both a 'yes' and a 'no' vote. Second, reallife decision rules of voting bodies - in particular the US legislature and the UN Security Council -á are misrepresented as though they did not allow abstention as a tertium quid. We suggest that these misrepresentations may be examples of what philosophers of science call 'theory-laden observation'.

Date: 2002
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hom:homoec:v:19:y:2002:p:297-310

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