when the U.S House of Representatives takes up an issue we can use the median voter theorem to predict how it might turn out if there are two proposed solutions to the same problem the solution that will be adopted will be the one favored by the median voter in the House of Representatives whichever Congress person falls in the middle of the ideological Spectrum will hold a position of great power since they will be casting the vote that decides which legislation is passed and which isn't but this only works if there are two proposed Solutions what happens if there are three an analogous problem is what happens when there are three candidates vying for political office instead of two if three candidates are on the ballot and each voter votes for the candidate whose positions are closest to their own then the orange Party candidate will win these voters trust me I got out my ruler the yellow Party candidate will win these voters and this new red Party candidate will win this set of Voters if the candidate with the most votes wins then the winner is the orange Party candidate in this case they're winning with about 46 of the vote but notice that here the median voter was not decisive unlike an election with only two candidates where they decide who wins here the winner could be decided by anyone it's also easy to see that all of the yellow party voters are feeling pretty spurned they would prefer the red Party candidate to the orange Party candidate and that had they voted for the red Party candidate the red Party candidate would have won the Condor save winner is the candidate who wins a majority of the vote in every head-to-head election against each of the other candidates it's named for Nicholas de karate Marquis of condorsay condorsay was a French philosopher and mathematician during the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution he was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and he wrote fervently in favor of equal rights for women and people of all Races to find the Condor say winner we need to think about every possible matchup between two of these three candidates if the race is between the orange and yellow parties then the orange party will come out Victorious now the median voter is decisive and the median voter is closer to the orange Party candidate If instead the race is between the orange and red parties then the red Party candidate will come out on top so while the orange party is able to defeat the yellow party it cannot defeat the red party in a head-to-head match-up when the red party faces off against the yellow party the result is a blowout in favor of the red Party candidate you can see on the top left where we've kept track of these results that red wins every head-to-head matchup that it is a part of which means it is the condorsay winner kunder say himself suggested that we should choose a voting system which selects the condorsay winner Whenever there is one the problem is there isn't always a condor say winner when there is no condorsay winner it matters who gets to set the agenda let's imagine a city council which has nine Representatives on it they are choosing what to do with a plot of land in the city and there are three proposals which we will call a b and c the Reds think C is the best option A is the second best option and B is the third best option oranges rank the options a then B then C yellow ranks them C then B then a greens rank them b c then a and teal Rings them a c then B if the agenda calls for them to vote on option A versus option b we can see that the Reds oranges and teal all prefer a to B and so a will win this vote five to four or fifty five percent to 45 percent if the agenda calls for them to vote on option A versus option C we can see that the Reds yellow and greens all prefer C to a and so c will win this vote six to three or 67 percent to 33 percent if the agenda calls for them to vote on option B versus option C we can see that the oranges and greens prefer B to C and so B will win this vote five to four or 55 to 45 percent there's no Condor save winner here each option wins one of their matchups but not the other when there's no Condor save winner the person who sets the agenda decides which policy will be enacted I'm the city council this is probably the chairperson which means option C is going to be enacted let me explain the chair will call the session to order and decide what they will vote on first we have to choose between options a b and c they'll say let's start by voting on option A versus option b who's in favor of option A a will win that vote 55 to 45 percent as we saw then the chair will say Okay option b is eliminated now let's vote between option A and option C and option C will win 67 to 33 percent great the chair will say option C is enacted if the chair had preferred option b instead they would start with a versus C and then go to B versus C so B ends up winning if they wanted option A to win in the end they would start with the vote between B and C and then proceed to a versus B the person setting the order of the votes the agenda will be the one who decides what ends up happening in the U.S House of Representatives that person is the speaker of the house which is why the speaker is considered one of the most powerful people in government when it comes to the election of our Representatives where often we Face many choices it's worth thinking about who is setting the agenda the agenda setting theory of mass communication suggests that the media has the ability to shape public opinion by determining which issue gets the most attention and in that way they can drive us towards certain outcomes it's worth remembering next time you go to vote