%! TEX root = ABF.tex % vim: tw=80 ft=tex % 03/02/2026 12PM \begin{example*} This is an example to show that the ``\gls{irrelalt}'' property is hard to satisfy. With three voters, a natural way to set up the voting system is to say that candidates award 2 points to their favourite, 1 point to their second favourite, and no points to the least favourite. Suppose that $33$ people vote $A > B > C$, $33$ vote $C > A > B$ and $34$ vote $B > C > A$. Then one can check that $B$ ends up higher than $A$ if we run the voting system described above. But if we change the $C > A > B$ voters to $A > C > B$, then we would get that $A$ scores higher than $B$, which shows that this voting system does not have the ``\gls{irrelalt}'' property. \end{example*} Given some pairwise rankings, we say that there is a \emph{Condorcet winner} if they form a transitive relation (i.e., they induce a total ordering). \begin{remark*} If there is always a Condorcet winner, then necessarily $u = v = w$. To see this, let $x \in \{-1, 1\}^n$ be arbitrary, let $y = -x$, and let $z = (u(x), u(x), \ldots, u(x))$. Since $y = -x$, this is a valid vote (i.e. $(x, y, z) \in X$). The outcome is $(u(x), v(-x), u(x))$ (where $w(z) = u(x)$ by weak monotonicity). For this to be a valid ranking, we must have $v(-x) = -u(x)$. That is true for all $x$. By symmetry, we also have $v(-x) = -w(x)$ for all $x$, so $u(x) = w(x)$, so by symmetry $u = v = w$. \end{remark*} \begin{proof}[Proof of \nameref{thm:3.1}] Suppose we have three candidates $A$, $B$, $C$ and $n$ voters. Encode a vote as a sequence $(x, y, z) \in \{-1, 1\}^{3n}$ where for each $i$, $x_i = 1$ if and only if voter $i$ prefers $A$ to $B$, $y_i = 1$ if and only if voter $i$ prefers $B$ to $C$, and $z_i = 1$ if and only if voter $i$ prefers $C$ to $A$. For this to be a vote, $(x_i, y_i, z_i) \in \{-1, 1\}^3 \setminus \{(1, 1, 1), (-1, -1, -1)\}$. Let $X$ be the set of all such $(x, y, z)$. A voting rule is then a function $f : X \to \{-1, 1\}^n \setminus \{(1, 1, 1), (-1, -1, -1)\}$. If axiom 3 holds (``\gls{irrelalt}''), then we can write $f(x, y, z) = (u(x), v(y), w(z))$ for three Boolean functions $u, v, w : \{-1, 1\}^n \to \{-1, 1\}$. Let us assume that $u = v = w$, as shown in the above Remark. Then we have a Condorcet winner if and only if for every $(x, y, z)$, it is not the case that $u(x) = u(y) = u(z)$. But $u(x) = u(y) = u(z)$ is false if and only if $u(x) u(y) + u(y)u(z) + u(z)u(x) = -1$. So if there is always a Condorcet winner, then \[ \Ebb_{(x, y, z) \in X} (u(x)u(y) + u(y)u(z) + u(z)u(x)) = -1 ,\] so $\Ebb_{(x, y, z) \in X} u(x)u(y) = -\third$. If we choose $(x, y, z)$ uniformly from $X$, then $x$ is uniform in $\{-1, 1\}^n$. Having picked $x$, the possibilities for $(y_i, z_i)$ are $(-x_i, x_i)$, $(x_i, -x_i)$ and $(-x_i, -x_i)$ with all three equally likely. So $y_i = x_i$ with probability $\third = \frac{1 + \left( -\third \right)}{2}$. Therefore, \[ \Ebb_{(x, y, z) \in X} u(x) u(y) = \stab_{-\third} u .\] We can conclude that $\stab_{-\third} u = -\third$. By the Fourier formula for $\stab$, it follows that \[ \sum_A \left( -\third \right)^{|A|} \ft{u}(A)^2 = -\third .\] By \gls{parseval}, $\sum_A \ft{u}(A)^2 = 1$. It follows that $\ft{u}(A)^2 = 0$ when $|A| \neq 1$, or in other words that $u$ is linear (with zero constant term). By \cref{lemma:3.2}, $u$ is a dictator, violating axiom 2. \end{proof} We will show that if we relax the above theorem to consider voting rules where with probability $\eps$ we fail to give a Condorcet winner, then there is an ``almost dictator'' (someone who determines the vote most of the time). Note that if $p = \Pbb(\text{Condorcet winner})$, then \[ \Ebb_{(x, y, z) \in X} (u(x)u(y) + u(y)u(z) + u(z)u(x)) = -p + 3(1 - p) = 3 - 4p .\] \glssymboldefn{W}% So $3\stab_{-\third} u = 3 - 4p$, so $p = \frac{3}{4}(1 - \stab_{-\third} u)$. Therefore, if $p \ge 1 - \eps$, then $1 - \eps \le \frac{3}{4} (1 - \stab_{-\third} u)$ so $\stab_{-\third} u \le -\third + \frac{4}{3} \eps$. But writing $W_1(f)$ for $\sum_{|A| = 1} \ft{f}(A)^2$, \[ \stab_{-\third} u \ge -\third W_1(u) - \frac{1}{27} (1 - W_1(u)) ,\] so \[ -\third W_1(u) - \frac{1}{27} (1 - W_1(u)) \le -\third + \frac{4}{3} \eps .\] If $W_1(u) = 1 - \delta$ then \[ -\third + \frac{\delta}{3} - \frac{\delta}{27} \le -\third + \frac{4}{3}\eps ,\] $\delta \le \frac{9}{2} \eps$, i.e. $W_1(u) \ge 1 - \frac{9}{2} \eps$. To show that there is an almost dictator we will need to introduce a lot more theory. \newpage \section{Hypercontractivity} % TODO: ?? We begin with an important lemma of Bonami. \begin{fclemma}[Bonami's Lemma] % Lemma 4.1 \label{lemma:4.1} Let $f : \{-1, 1\}^n \to \Rbb$ be a function of degree $\le k$. Then $\|f\|_4 \le 3^{k / 2} \|f\|_2$. \end{fclemma} This statement is natural: to have $\|f\|_4$ much larger than $\|f\|_2$, $f$ must be `spiky', because if it is roughly constant, then these norms are roughly the same; but if $f$ is `spiky', then we expect it to not be low degree polynomial. \begin{example*} Consider $f(0) = 1$, $f(x) = 0$ otherwise. $\|f\|_2 = 2^{-n / 2}$, $\|f\|_4 = 2^{-n / 4}$. So $\|f\|_4$ is much larger than $\|f\|_2$ in this case, and indeed $f$ is not a low degree polynomial. \end{example*} \begin{proof} Induction on $n$. $n = 1$ is easy. Let $f : \{-1, 1\}^n \to \Rbb$. Then $f = g + x_n h$ where $g(x) = E_n f = \half (f(x_{n \subst 1}) + f(x_{n \subst -1}))$ and $h(x) = \D_n x = \half (f(x_{n \subst 1}) - f(x_{n \subst -1}))$. Note also that $g$ and $x_n h$ are orthogonal.