Copeland's method or Copeland's pairwise aggregation method is a Condorcet method in which candidates are ordered by the number of pairwise victories, minus the number of pairwise defeats.
Proponents argue that this method is easily understood by the general populace, which is generally familiar with the sporting equivalent. In many round-robin tournaments, the winner is the competitor with the most victories. It is also easy to calculate.
When there is no Condorcet winner (i.e. when there are multiple members of the Smith set), this method often leads to ties. For example, if there is a three-candidate majority rule cycle, each candidate will have exactly one loss, and there will be an unresolved tie between the three.
Critics argue that it also puts too much emphasis on the quantity of pairwise victories and defeats rather than their magnitudes.
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“Women are denied masturbation even more severely than men and that’s another method of control—they’re not taught to please themselves.... Most women—it takes them a while to warm up to the “situation” but once they get into it, I’m sure they’re going to get just as hooked as—well, everyone I know is!”
—Lydia Lunch (b. 1959)