Limitations of Best-of-Both-Worlds Solutions in Approval-Based Multiwinner Elections

Jiarong Jin; Xuanxuan Liu; Biaoshuai Tao

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arXiv · 2608.01830

Limitations of Best-of-Both-Worlds Solutions in Approval-Based Multiwinner Elections

Jiarong Jin·Xuanxuan Liu·Biaoshuai Tao

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Abstract

We study the best-of-both-worlds fairness in approval-based multi-winner elections, asking whether ex-ante guarantees for a fractional outcome can be implemented while every realized committee satisfies an ex-post representation axiom. Recent work has shown that several ex-ante proportionality guarantees can be achieved together with strong ex-post representation axioms. We first prove that ex-ante weak Pareto optimality (weak PO), which requires that no other fractional outcome makes every voter strictly better off, is incompatible with ex-post justified representation (JR). Since fractional core stability implies weak PO, this also rules out the possibility of combining ex-ante fractional core, a central fairness notion for fractional committees, with ex-post JR. We further show that ex-ante AJR is incompatible with ex-post JR, even though AJR is a much stronger average-representation analogue of JR. On the positive side, we show that the fractional ex-ante side itself remains highly compatible: several natural ex-ante representation guarantees can be satisfied simultaneously, including fractional core, group-resource proportionality, AJR (as well as its strict strengthening AJR+), and Pareto-optimality. Hence, highly fair fractional committees may exist even when they cannot be implemented by randomization over JR committees. Our results separate fractional representation from best-of-both-worlds implementability and identify fundamental limitations of fair randomized committee selection.

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Jiarong Jin, Xuanxuan Liu, Biaoshuai Tao. 2026-08-03. Limitations of Best-of-Both-Worlds Solutions in Approval-Based Multiwinner Elections. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.01830

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