Duncan Black noticed that “the more options that are on offer, and the more electors there are voting, the more severe this cycling paradox becomes, making it of particular importance in the large and complex systems of today”. The particular moment that the article focus, in the election of presidents in France, where the most voted candidates from a first round of voting go into a second round run-off, the National Front leader Le Pen came a close second in the first ballot of sixteen candidates, only to lose by a landslide to Jacques Chirac in the run-off, while the socialists, a very close third, did not get on the second-round ballot paper at all. Butler observes: “a different voting system could have produced a different result entirely”.
