[tunesmith]

I'd also argue that if IIA exists, then it might be a good thing. For instance, if a voting population appears to have a clear preference, but then produces a cycle when a new candidate is introduced, it might just be an indication that the first set of candidates were lousy, the voters felt they were compromising, and the first set of candidates didn't represent voter preferences well enough.

[chongli]

Voters are always going to have to compromise. People are extremely complicated and different from one another. Even people who have been married for 50 years have a hard time agreeing on everything. Expand that out into millions of people and the scope for common ground narrows dramatically.