The negative participation paradox in three-candidate instant runoff elections

David McCune () and Jennifer Wilson ()
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David McCune: William Jewell College
Jennifer Wilson: The New School

Theory and Decision, 2025, vol. 98, issue 4, No 4, 537-559

Abstract: Abstract We provide theoretical and empirical estimates for the likelihood of a negative participation paradox under instant runoff voting in three-candidate elections. We determine the probability of the paradox and related conditional probabilities based on the impartial anonymous culture and impartial culture models for both complete and partial ballots. We compare these results to the empirical likelihood of a negative participation paradox occurring under instant runoff voting in a large database of voter profiles which have been reduced to three candidates. Lastly, we analyze the relative likelihood of this paradox in comparison to other well-known paradoxes.

Keywords: Negative participation paradox; Negative involvement; Instant runoff voting; Impartial culture; Empirical results; Voting paradox (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11238-025-10026-2

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