Program.
User's Guide.
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Voting Systems.
Program.
User's Guide.
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PoliticalSim Guide
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(1) Most versions will decompress themselves when you open the download file. Versions with a name that ends in ".zip" need a program such as WinZip or SuffIt.  Commands to Note |
A) Organize Menu1) Get Cities: Try the Checkerboard city for its evenly spaced voters. (Be sure the Get Voters box is selected with an "X" in it.) The evenly spaced voters make it easy to see the results of voting rules without the visual distraction caused by more realistic clustering of voters and bubbles with no voters. |  Get Cities window
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2) Register Voters: Do not put an "X" in Redistribute. This makes voters keep the checkerboard pattern while you change the percentages in each party faction.
For clairity, do not check Mix Factions Together. On the right of this "dialog box" are 5 rows with 3 boxes in each row. The first column is for a party's name; the second is for its "Z level", explained below; and the third is for its percentage of voters. Try putting most voters (60% to 80%) in the Blue party and make their Z=0. Then put the other voters in the Green party and make their Z=5. These Z levels make all Blue voters rank all Blue candidates above all Green candidates. (This is because the map space is 2 or 3 units across and the same in height. The longest distance across the screen is less than 5 units. So the distance between Z=0 and Z=5 puts the Green candidates further from Blue voters than all Blue candidates.) | 
The X and Y dimensions are the width and height of the Map
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3) Nominate Candidates: A party's candidates ought to have the same Z level as its voters.
You can move each candidate by hand: Hold down the Control key and slowly click twice on a candidate, then move it along the X or Y dimension. You can also move candidates by directly changing their (X, Y, Z) numbers on the Register page. To update the map, hold the control key as you tap the = (equal sign) key. |  Distribute Candidatees window
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| 4) Set Voting Rules: Select a voting from the list of proportional, semi-proportional and winner-take-all rules; then set the rule's quota etc. if needed. (This command was "Bid on Rules" The option to "Let a dictator choose" led to the "Set Voting Rules" dialog. The other options demonstrated two interesting rules, not used in elections.) | 
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B) Campaign Menu:Skip it. As a multi-player game it is too slow; while 1 player moves 1 candidate along 1 issue dimension, other players must wait. The game commands in the Campaign menu don't do anything exciting.PoliticalSimTM started as a way to show the patterns of representation elected by a variety of voting rules: central, fair-share proportional, one-sided and erratic. That is what PS is best at. C) Elect Menu1) Cast Ballots2) Watch Returns The option to Show STV Transfers is worth watching when running a tally of Single Transferable Vote Or the Loring Ensemble Rule. Notice: Are winners all from one party? What is the pattern elected by the current voting rule: central, proportional fair shares, one-sided or erratic? PoliticalSim can tally voting rules which require single-member districts but they do not work well in games. They require maps that show which district each voter and candidate is in by the shape of his or her symbol. PoliticalSim can create new elections automatically, mesmerizing like a screen saver, I call it the "Lava Lamp" mode. To start it, select Run Research on the Organize menu and step through the dialog boxes. When you get to "News Coverage", set the Number of Elections at 99 (or less if you want) and set "Record Results to Column" 0 (zero or blank). Although this mode was built for statistical research, you don't want to create dozens of statistical files while running it for amusement. |
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| Electoral Systems | Legislative Systems | |||||
Chair
| Reps
| Council
| Policy
| Projects
| Budgets
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Review
Software Printouts  To Do U.S. Reforms Future rules Voting Glossary Resources |
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Accurate Democracy 
