Algorithms For Democratic Decision-Making

MGMT 7405 / CPSC 7405 / ECON 5532 - Yale University, Spring 2026

Instructor: Jamie Tucker-Foltz     j.tuckerfoltz@yale.edu

Class: Mon-Wed 10:00am-11:20am in Evans Hall 4220 (Gould Classroom)

Office hours: Mon-Thurs 1:00pm-2:00pm in Evans Hall 3477, or by appointment

Syllabus Canvas Site

Course Schedule

Click the links in each lecture to download the slides (when available) and papers and access assignment submission links. Downloading papers requires a Yale login. All materials will also be made available in the Files section on Canvas. Unless otherwise noted, assignments are due (via Canvas) at 11:59pm Anywhere on Earth on the date listed. Slides for all student presentations are due at 11:59pm Anywhere on Earth on the day before the presentation. Lecture topics subject to change.

Lec. # Date Topic Optional Reading Student Presentation Reading Assignment Due
Part 1: Preference Aggregation
1 Jan 12 Course Preview None None
2 Jan 14 Voting Systems Fishburn's classification of voting rules
Condorcet's original paper (in French!)		 None Pre-course survey
3 Jan 21 Arrow's Theorem Arrow's theorem (original)
Unified proof of Arrow + GS
Handout		 None
4 Jan 23 Strategic Voting IRV is hard to manipulate
IRV is not hard to manipulate		 A topological impossibility theorem
5 Jan 26 Restricted Preferences
(over Zoom - see Canvas announcement)		 Characterization of Condorcet domains
Facility location		 Phantom characterization
6 Jan 28 Distance-Based Preferences Copeland has distortion 5
Plurality veto		 Breaking the randomized barrier
7 Feb 02 The Epistemic Approach Kemeny is NP-Hard Insincere voting with 2 alternatives
8 Feb 04 Multi-Winner Voting Justified representation
Method of equal shares (original)
MES for PB		 Underspending in MES
9 Feb 09 Social Choice with Incomplete Preferences Incomplete ranked preferences
Incomplete approval preferences		 None
10 Feb 11 Budget Aggregation Truthful budget aggregation None
11 Feb 16 Social Choice for AI Alignment RLHF and social choice
Linear social choice		 RLHF distortion
12 Feb 18 Content Moderation Community Notes None
13 Feb 23 Fair Division 1: Indivisible Goods
(over Zoom - see Canvas announcement)		 Indivisible goods survey EFX exists for three agents
14 Feb 25 Fair Division 2: Divisible Goods Handbook of COMSOC (chap 12)
Splitting necklaces		 Two sided matching fairness
15 Mar 02 Fair Division 3: Assignment Problems Probabilistic serial None Project proposal
Mar 04 No lecture, individual meetings with groups
Part 2: Democratic Institutions
16 Mar 23 Liquid Democracy Liquid democracy survey
Local delegation impossibility
More LD impossibilities		 Tracking truth with liquid democracy
17 Mar 25 Citizens Assemblies Leximin
Minimax		 Sortition core
18 Mar 30 Apportionment 1
(over Zoom - see Canvas announcement)		 Divisor methods and line arrangements Multi level apportionment
19 Apr 01 Apportionment 2
(over Zoom - see Canvas announcement)		 Coalitional population monotonicity House monotonicity
20 Apr 06 Randomized Apportionment and Weighted Voting Hardness of computing power indices Inverse semivalue approximation Project update
Apr 08 No lecture, individual meetings with groups
21 Apr 13 Redistricting as a Fair Division Problem State-cutting Fair majority voting
22 Apr 15 Detecting Gerrymandering Efficiently sampling balanced forests Achieving no county splits
23 Apr 20 Condorcet Winners Approximately stable committees
Six candidates suffice
Two candidates do not suffice		 None
Apr 22 Project presentations
Apr 27 Project presentations
Apr 29 Project presentations Final project report