Models in political science are often poorly specified prior to testing. In practice, most analysts rely on regression analysis to determine the weights for each independent variable (causal factor) identified in the model. We demonstrate a method for determining the relative weights of causal...

We use techniques of group decision making and consensus under fuzzy preferences and fuzzy majority developed so as to compare five methods used for determining the degree of causality of eight variables for democratic consolidation. In particular for Q denoting the linguistic variable 'most',...

Choice functions play an important role in political science. We present structure results of choice functions following an algebraic approach. It is logical that rational political actors are not able to perceive every alternative in a set of alternatives X. They may also choose to exclude some...

The proofs of many factorization results for an intuitionistic fuzzy binary relation 〈ρμ,ρν〉 involve dual proofs, one for ρμ with respect to a t-conorm ⊕ and one for ρν with respect to a t-norm ⊗. In this paper, we show that one proof can be obtained from the other by considering...

Under certain aggregation rules, particular subsets of the voting population fully characterize the social preference relation, and the preferences of the remaining voters become irrelevant. In the traditional literature, these types of rules, i.e. voting and simple rules, have received...

The literature involving fuzzy Arrow results uses the same independence of irrelevant alternatives condition. We introduce three other types of independence of irrelevant alternative conditions and show that they can be profitably used in the examination of Arrow's theorem. We also generalize...

We examine the effect of indifference on the existence of a majority rule maximal set. In our setting, it is shown in all but a limited number of cases that the maximal set is empty in an n-dimensional spatial model if and only if the Pareto set contains a union of cycles. The elements that...

Fuzzy spatial models map a substantial degree of preference indifference. It has been shown that different definitions of covering result in different elements in the uncovered set when preference indifference is present. We consider several of the most frequently used definitions of covering...

If we assume that the preferences of a set of political actors are not cyclic, we would like to know if their collective choices are rationalizable. Given a fuzzy choice rule, do they collectively choose an alternative from the set of undominated alternatives? We consider necessary and...

We use techniques from fuzzy mathematics to develop metrics for measuring how well the US is achieving its overarching national security goal: to protect itself, its allies and its friends from both nuclear attack and coercive pressures by states possessing nuclear weapons. The metrics are...