Symmetry (social choice)

Condorcet methods Positional voting Cardinal voting Quota-remainder methods Approval-based committees Fractional social choice Semi-proportional representation By ballot type Pathological response Strategic voting Paradoxes of majority rule Positive results In economics and social choice, a function satisfies anonymity, neutrality, or symmetry if the rule does not discriminate between different participants ahead of time.

For example, in an election, a voter-anonymous function is one where it does not matter who casts which vote, i.e. all voters' ballots are equal ahead of time.

[1][2] Similarly, outcome-neutrality says the rule does not discriminate between different outcomes (e.g. candidates) ahead of time.

[1][2] Some authors reserve the term anonymity for agent symmetry and neutrality for outcome-symmetry,[1][2] but this pattern is not perfectly consistent.

For example, many motions require a supermajority to pass, and other rules can give certain stakeholders a veto.