Can the scientific method be applied in choosing a candidate to be voted?

[treize]

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Educational background and Psychological Observation....

[The_Child]

of course it can be applied. but whether it is adequate or even successful is another question.

[grovestreet]

a lesson learned... don't be a superficial voter. Generations before us didn't have the internet to research about the candidates and we can see the result just by simply looking around us. Generations before us have elected a bunch of ignorant, corrupt, mafia leaders.

[Ramini]

i think there's a similar effort like this during WWII it was scrutinizing the world leaders through psychology then by using the data acquired they could predict the war time decisions of a specific war time leader..successful man daw to..wla na nako na investigate ug maayo since it was just mentioned ra in a certain program.

[yacky2006]

Scientific method is applicable here.

Some candidates hire a mathematician or statistician.

They collate data from NSO, COMELEC, LGU etc…

Data of the following:

Candidate votes in previous elections or previous position
Population per region down to barangay level
List/No. of regional leaders down to local leaders
Registered Voters and Actual Voters
List/No. of poll watcher in previous election
Etc…

If you do this for personal reason then you can have a candidate

[bcasabee]

I think not, because making it truly scientific will entail the total disclosure of the candidates personal information which will violate their basic human rights. Election is a practical application of faith. We have no choice but to trust that the winning candidate will really fulfill his promises as advertised.

[gareb]

this is an interesting thread. why haven't i stumbled on this before?

i think this is possible. however, before we can begin, i think we should consider a few prerequisites:

1.) a value system should first be set up to quantify a candidate's stand on matters, and his/her ability to push through with his/her political plans. a candidate may initially hold one political view (liberal, conservative, etc), and shift according to issues on hand (taxation, environment, civil liberties, law enforcement, etc.)

2.) a criteria has to be set up on the kind of candidate that we should be looking for. this can be a bit hard as this criteria can be arbitrary depending on the political leanings of the voters.

once these are done, we take the next arduous step of looking into what aspects (and their corresponding values) of the candidate's (political) life should be included in our analysis. some essentials of which should include the following;

-family background/nepotistic tendencies
-ideological or issue-based politics
-tendencies to flip-flop on his/her stand on issues
-intellectual/emotional capability
-connections to "undesirables"
-conflict of interests
-etc.

the one with the most favorable rating should be our best man/woman for the job.

the entire concept is fairly simple but the research work might be quite hellish (and dangerous even), not to mention when one tries to crunch the numbers.