Manipulation

Abstract

Systematic opportunities for manipulation emerge as a by-product of the structure of all group decision processes. Theory suggests that no process is immune. The study of manipulation provides principles and insights about how parts of complex decision systems work together and how changes in one part can have broad impact. Thus, manipulation strategies are derived from many features of voting processes. Public choice theory highlights relationships among group choice, rules, and individual decisions. The theory is a source of surprises and paradoxes that suggests tools for manipulation of group choices. This chapter catalogs many of the surprises that harbor potential sources of manipulation in the hope that a deeper understanding of manipulation will produce better systems.