Accountable Approval Sorting

Abstract

We consider decision situations in which a set of points of view (voters, criteria) are to sort a set of candidates to ordered categories (Good/Bad). Candidates are judged  good, when approved by a sufficient set of points of view; this corresponds to NonCompensatory Sorting. To be accountable, such approval sorting should provide guarantees about the decision process and decisions concerning specific candidates. We formalize accountability using a feasibility problem expressed as a boolean satisfiability formulation. We illustrate different forms of accountability when a committee decides with approval sorting and study the information that should be disclosed by the committee.