Maximin Choice of Voting Rules for Committees1

In the context of a probabilistic voting model, we investigate the consequences of choosing among voting rules according to the maximin criterion. We characterize the rules that satisfy the maximin criterion as a function of the distribution of voters’ probabilities to favor change. We prove that there are at most two maximin rules, at least one is Pareto efficient and often different to simple majority rule. If a committee is formed only by “conservative voters”, i.e. voters who are more likely to prefer the status quo than change, then the maximin criterion recommends voting rules that are not higher than the simple majority rule. If there are only “radical voters”, then this criterion recommends rules that are not lower than the 50% majority.