Condorcet paradox

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In social choice theory, a Condorcet paradox (or voting paradox or Condorcet cycle) is a situation where majority rule behaves in a way that is self-contradictory. In such a situation, every possible choice is rejected by the electorate in favor of another, because there is always some other outcome that a majority of voters consider to be better.

The name "Condorcet" refers to how the issue affects Condorcet ranked voting systems, forcing them to fall back to another method (such as score voting) or be designed to return a single answer in most situations (as in beatpath voting).