Introduction to the Handbook on Approval Voting

Since the publication, in 1983, of Steven Brams and Peter Fishburn’s seminal work

Approval Voting

, a variety of theoretical and empirical studies have enhanced our understanding of the various aspects of this voting system: its axiomatic properties have been analyzed; its ballot structure has been examined; its strategic aspects have been scrutinized; the electoral competition structures it induces have been explored; and the patterns of voter behavior entailed by it have been observed both in the laboratory and the field. This research has also engendered various academic controversies, some of which will be mentioned in this introduction. In brief, the merest glance at the literature since 1983 reveals a remarkable accumulation of results, obtained through efforts in a remarkably diverse range of fields: social choice theory, game theory, computer science, political science and experimental economics. This book, then, presents a collection of essays intended to summarize the current state of knowledge on this system of voting