title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The beginning of construction of Diocletian's palace has not exactly been established. It is assumed to have begun around 295, after the introduction of the Tetrarchy (the rule of four). Yet ten years after that decision, when Diocletian abdicated in 305, the palace seems to have still been unfinished, and there are indications that some works were taking place while the emperor was residing at the Palace. It is unknown under whose architectural ideas the palace was built and who its builders were. The complex was modelled on Roman forts of the 3rd-century era, examples of which can be seen across the "limes", such as the bridgehead fort of "Castrum Divitia" across the Rhine from Cologne.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: However, the engraved Greek names Zotikos and Filotas, as well as many Greek characters, indicate that a number of builders were originally from the eastern part of the empire, i.e. Diocletian brought with him masters from the East. Still, a large part of the workforce was likely of local origin. The basic materials came from close proximity. The white limestone comes from Brač and some of Seget near Trogir; tufa was extracted from nearby riverbeds, and bricks were made in Spalatum and other workshops located nearby.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: At Carnuntum, people begged Diocletian to return to the throne in order to resolve the conflicts that had arisen through Constantine's rise to power and Maxentius' usurpation. Diocletian famously replied:


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Diocletian lived on for four more years, spending his days in his palace gardens. He saw his tetrarchic system fail, torn by the selfish ambitions of his successors. He heard of Maximian's third claim to the throne, his forced suicide, and his "damnatio memoriae". In his palace, statues and portraits of his former companion emperor were torn down and destroyed. Deep in despair and illness, Diocletian may have committed suicide. He died on 3 December 312.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: With the death of Diocletian, the life of the palace did not end, and it remained an imperial possession of the Roman court, providing shelter to the expelled members of the Emperor's family. In 480, Emperor Julius Nepos was murdered by one of his own soldiers, reportedly stabbed to death in his villa near Salona. Since Diocletian's palace was in the area, it might have been the same building.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Its second life came when Salona was largely destroyed in the invasions of the Avars and Slavs in the 7th century, though the exact year of the destruction still remains an open debate between archaeologists. Part of the expelled population, now refugees, found shelter inside the palace's strong walls and with them a new, organized city life began. Since then, the palace has been continuously occupied, with residents making their homes and businesses within the palace basement and directly in its walls. St Martin's Church is an example of this trend. Today many restaurants and shops, and some homes can still be found within the walls.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: In the period of the free medieval commune, between the 12th and 14th centuries, there was a greater architectural development when many medieval houses filled not only Roman buildings but also a large part of the free space of streets and docks. Also completed in this period was the construction of the Romanesque bell tower of the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, which inhabits the building that was originally erected as Jupiter's temple and then used as the Mausoleum of Diocletian.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: After the Middle Ages, the palace was virtually unknown in the rest of Europe until the Scottish architect Robert Adam had the ruins surveyed. Then, with the aid of French artist and antiquary Charles-Louis Clérisseau and several draughtsmen, Adam published "Ruins of the Palace of Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia" (London, 1764).


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Diocletian's palace was an inspiration for Adam's new style of Neoclassical architecture and the publication of measured drawings brought it into the design vocabulary of European architecture for the first time. A few decades later, in 1782, the French painter Louis-François Cassas created drawings of the palace, published by Joseph Lavallée in 1802 in the chronicles of his voyages.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Today, the Palace is well preserved with all the most important historical buildings, in the centre of the city of Split, the second-largest city of modern Croatia. Diocletian's Palace far transcends local importance because of its degree of preservation. The Palace is one of the most famous and complete architectural and cultural features on the Croatian Adriatic coast. As the world's most complete remains of a Roman palace, it holds an outstanding place in Mediterranean, European, and world heritage.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: In November 1979, UNESCO, in line with the international convention on cultural and natural heritage, adopted a proposal that the historic city of Split built around the Palace should be included in the register of World Cultural Heritage.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: In November 2006, the City Council decided to permit over twenty new buildings within the palace (including a shopping and garage complex), although the palace had been declared a World Heritage Site. It is said that this decision was politically motivated and largely due to lobbying by local property developers. Once the public 2007 became aware of the project, they petitioned against the decision and won. No new buildings, shopping centres or underground garages were built.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The World Monuments Fund has been working on a conservation project at the palace, including surveying structural integrity and cleaning and restoring the stone and plasterwork.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The ground plan of the palace is an irregular rectangle measuring east: 214.97 m, north: 174.74 m, south: 181.65 m (adjusting for the terrain), with sixteen towers projecting from the western, northern, and eastern facades on the facades facing the mainland. There are four towers on the corners of the square, giving the palace a characteristic of the legionary forts similar to those on the Danube.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Two of the six octagonal ground-floor towers were framed by three landing entrances, the six rectangular ground floors of the rectangular floor being between the corner and the octagonal. To date, three corner towers (except the southwestern) have been preserved, and only the remains of octagonal and rectangular ones. Three well-preserved landings have been architecturally fragmented, especially the northern one, which was the main approach from Salona. The south, seaside gate, is small, simple and well-preserved. The facade walls of the palace in their lower parts are massive and simple without openings, and in the upper part, there are large arches that face the land, ie on the west, north and east facades. subterranean portions of the palace feature barrel vaulted stonework.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Only the southern facade, which rose directly from or very near to the sea, was unfortified. The elaborate architectural composition of the arcaded gallery on its upper floor differs from the more severe treatment of the three shore facades. A monumental gate in the middle of each wall led to an enclosed courtyard. The southern ’Sea Gate’ (the "Porta Meridionalis") was simpler in shape and dimensions than the other three, and it is thought that it was originally intended either as the emperor's private access to the sea or as a service entrance for supplies.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The Porta septemtrionalis ("the northern gate) "is one of the four principal Roman gates into the Palace. Originally the Main gate from which the Emperor entered the complex, the gate is on the road to the north, towards Salona, the then capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and Diocletian's birthplace. It is probably the gate the Emperor entered after his abdication from the imperial throne on 1 May 305. Today the 7th-century church of St Martin can be found above the gate, and is open to the public.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The Porta Orientalis ("the eastern gate") is one of the four principal Roman gates into the Palace. Originally a secondary gate, it faces east towards the Roman town of Epetia, today Stobreč. Probably in or around the 6th century, above the gate in the sentry corridor, a small church dedicated to St Apolinar was built. This coincided with the complex seeing an influx of refugees from outlying communities, similar churches were over the Golden Gate, the Iron Gate, and the Bronze Gate. The structure of this part of the wall and the door itself were later incorporated in various buildings in the following centuries, such as the Church of Dušica, which was destroyed in the Second World War.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Porta Occidentalis ("the western gate") is one of the four principal Roman gates into the Palace. Originally a military gate from which troops entered the complex, the gate is the only one to have remained in continuous use to the present day. During the persecutions under Theodosius I a relief sculpture of Nike, the Roman goddess of Victory (which stood on the lintel) was removed from the gate, later in the 5th century, Christians engraved a Cross in its place. In the 6th century, above the gate a small church dedicated to St. Teodora. This coincided with the complex seeing an influx of refugees from outlying communities, similar churches were over the Golden Gate, the Silver Gate, and the Bronze Gate.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The Porta Meridionalis or "the southern gate" is the smaller of the four principal Roman gates into the Palace. Originally a sea gate from which the Emperor entered the complex by boat, via basement rooms in the Imperial Palace.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The design is derived from both villa and castrum types and this duality is also evident in the arrangement of the interior. The transverse road (decumanus) linking the Eastern gate and Western gate divided the complex into two halves.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: In the southern half there were more luxurious structures than in the northern section; these included public, private and religious buildings, as well as the Emperor's apartments.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The Emperor's apartments formed a block along the seafront, with an exterior square and circular floor plan, with a dome. From there, one approached the Emperor's apartment, which stretched 40 m deep along the entire south facade; it is only partly preserved on the upper floor, but it's ground-floor, translated substructures that directly bore it are almost completely preserved, so the overall layout and appearance of the upper spaces can be seen given the coincidence of the upper and lower floor plans. On the west side of the upper floor are preserved the remains of a dome hall and two halls with apses, and on the east side are parts of an octagonal dining room (triclinium) with three halls with a cross floor plan. The wall of the Western Cross Hall is preserved at full height. Diocletian's apartment was interconnected by a long room along the southern façade (cryptoporticus) from which through 42 windows and 3 balconies a view of the sea was opened. Two baths were recently found north of the Emperor's apartment, one adjacent to the west and the other to the eastern halls. Although for many centuries almost completely filled with refuse, most of the substructure is well preserved and indicates the original shape and disposition of the rooms above.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: A rotunda, that was once the first section of the imperial corridor in the Palace that led via the Peristyle to the Imperial apartments of the Palace.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Set below what were the Imperial apartments, the Cellars of Diocletian's Palace are a set of substructures located at the southern end of the Palace, that represent one of the best preserved ancient complexes of their kind in the world.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: A monumental court, the Peristyle, formed the northern access to the imperial apartments in front of the Vestibule. It also gave access to Diocletian's mausoleum on the east (today the Cathedral of Saint Domnius) and to three temples on the west (two of which are now lost, with the third, originally being the temple of Jupiter, becoming a baptistery). There is also a temple just to the west of the Peristyle called The Temple of Aesculapius, which has a semi-cylindrical roof built of stone blocks, which did not leak until the 1940s when it was covered with a lead roof. The temple was recently restored.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The northern half of the palace, divided into two parts by the main north-south street ("cardo") leading from the Golden Gate ("Porta aurea") to the Peristyle, is less well preserved. It is usually supposed that each part was a residential complex housing soldiers, servants, and possibly some other facilities.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Both parts of the palace were apparently surrounded by streets, leading to the perimeter walls through a rectangular buildings (possibly storage magazines).


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The Palace is built of white local limestone and marble of high quality, most of which was from the Brač marble quarries on the island of Brač, of tuff taken from the nearby river beds, and of brick made in Salonitan and other factories. Some material for decoration was imported: Egyptian granite columns, fine marble for revetments and some capitals produced in workshops in the Proconnesos.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: The Palace was decorated with numerous 3500-year-old granite sphinxes, originating from the site of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. Only three have survived the centuries. One is still on the Peristyle, the second sits headless in front of Jupiter's temple, and a third is housed in the city museum.


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: Diocletian's Palace was used as a location for filming the fourth season of the HBO series "Game of Thrones". The palace also hosted a task on the 31st season of the CBS reality show "The Amazing Race".


title: Diocletian's Palace

text: File:20130603 Split 085.jpg|Interior image of the Church of St Martin's with a view of the chancel screen (June 2013).


title: Amrapali Dubey

text: Amrapali Dubey (born 11 January 1987) is an Indian actress appearing in Bhojpuri films. She played the lead role in the show "Rehna Hai Teri Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein" as Suman. She acted in "" and "Maayka" on Zee TV. She was also seen in "Mera Naam Karegi Roshan". Dubey was in the Sahara One fiction show "Haunted Nights".


title: Amrapali Dubey

text: In 2014, she made her debut in Bhojpuri cinema with a leading role in "Nirahua Hindustani" opposite Dinesh Lal Yadav.


title: Amrapali Dubey

text: Dubey was born on 11 January 1987. She hails from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Later, she shifted to Mumbai with her grandfather. She completed her education from Bhavan's College, Mumbai.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Craig Malcolm Robinson (born April 21, 1962) is an American college basketball coach, basketball executive, and broadcaster. He is a former head men's basketball coach at Oregon State University and Brown University. He was a star forward as a player at Princeton University in the early 1980s and a bond trader during the 1990s. He currently is the Executive Director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Craig Malcolm Robinson was born on April 21, 1962, in Calumet Park, Illinois, to Fraser Robinson, a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian Robinson ("née" Shields), a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store. Robinson grew up in Chicago's South Shore with his younger sister, Former First Lady, Michelle Obama. He learned to read by the age of four at home and skipped the second grade in school. He attended the parochial Mount Carmel High School, graduating in 1979 as class valedictorian.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: When Robinson was considering what college to go to, his father insisted that he attend Princeton University for its Ivy League academics, rather than either the University of Washington or Purdue University, which offered scholarships and major basketball conference play.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Robinson, who stands and played forward, was a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton University, in 1981–1982 and 1982–1983, leading the league in field goal percentage both years. He is the fourth highest scorer in school history. He graduated in 1983 with a B.A. in Sociology. His senior thesis was on social stratification in prisons. Robinson and former teammate John W. Rogers, Jr. were among those invited to practice with Michael Jordan as he prepared for his comeback.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Robinson was drafted in the fourth round of the 1983 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, but never played in the league. He played professionally for the Manchester Giants in the British Basketball League for two seasons and returned to the U.S. in 1988 to become an assistant coach at the Illinois Institute of Technology, a position he held until 1990.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Robinson left basketball partly on the advice of his Princeton coach Pete Carril and pursued a business degree, earning an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1992. Robinson worked in the 1990s as a bond trader. He became a vice president at Continental Illinois Bank and worked there from 1990 to 1992. He was then a vice president, from 1992 to 1999, at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Later, he was a managing director and partner at Loop Capital Markets, a minority-owned boutique investment banking firm.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: When Robinson's sister, Michelle, began dating her law firm colleague, Barack Obama, who played basketball recreationally, she asked her brother to play with Obama and give her a character assessment so that she would know whether she could become serious with him. He gave an encouraging report to her. As he later related, "When I played basketball with Barack, he was quietly confident, which means he had good self-esteem without being cocky. He was certainly a team player – he wasn't a pig, he passed when he was supposed to pass, and he cut when he was supposed to cut. To me, that speaks to a lack of selfishness. He had natural leadership ability because he didn't just pass me the ball because he was dating my sister. Whenever a player gets tired, he reverts to the player he truly is. That's how you tell. And we played for hours. That's how I could tell." The story of this pick-up game and of a "test" being passed became a key part of the Obama narrative.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: While working in the business world, Robinson kept a hand in basketball by doing area scouting for Princeton and coaching one year at University of Chicago High School. He earned a high six-figure income in his business career, but he eventually decided the financial world had lost its appeal and found his luxury lifestyle was not enough to save his marriage to Janis Robinson. By 2000, Robinson was going through a divorce. Robinson has two children from his first marriage, a son Avery (born 1992) and a daughter Leslie (born 1996). Robinson remarried in June 2006 to his current wife Kelly. They became parents of sons Austin in 2010 and Aaron in 2012. His daughter Leslie played for the Princeton Tigers women's basketball team as a forward.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Robinson returned to coaching in 1999, making one-tenth his former salary. He was an assistant for six years to Bill Carmody at Northwestern University, where he was an effective recruiter. He then became a head coach at Brown University in 2006, where he ran a variation of the Princeton offense which he learned from Pete Carril during his years at Princeton. In improving a mid-level basketball program, he stressed work ethic, used tough love, and tried to improve the players' vocabulary. Having placed fifth with a strong finish to the season garnered Robinson the Ivy League men's basketball Coach of the Year for the 2006–2007 season by Basketball-U.com. The following year, the Brown Bears finished second in the league, and their 19 wins for the season was a team record.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Robinson assisted his brother-in-law throughout the latter's 2008 presidential campaign, including campaigning for him during the Iowa caucuses and campaigning and giving speeches for him in a number of other states, sometimes combining campaigning with recruiting visits. He introduced his sister Michelle before her speech on August 25, 2008, the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which gave him his largest national exposure. He was also on stage following Obama's victory speech in Grant Park after his election as president on November 4, 2008.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: On April 7, 2008, Robinson was hired as the Oregon State Beavers' head basketball coach following the team's winless Pacific-10 Conference record and overall 6–25 mark the year before. (Jesse Agel, Robinson's assistant of two years, took over Robinson's former position at Brown.)


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Oregon State got off to a fairly good start in Robinson's first year, starting with a 6–6 record; a January 2009 conference win over USC broke a nearly two-year Pac-10 losing streak and earned Robinson a congratulatory call from his brother-in-law, then-President-elect Obama. Robinson continued his tough-love approach, tailored to strengthening each player's weaknesses. After that first win, Robinson's team won another six Pac-10 games, exceeding expectations for his first year on the job, given that his personnel were essentially unchanged from the team's prior year. One key was that the offensive system he installed raised the team's collective field goal percentage almost 10 points. Some commentators felt he was deserving of consideration for the Pac-10 Coach of the Year award, and by late February, Robinson had hopes of the team getting a bid from one of the postseason tournaments. The team was indeed accepted into the 2009 College Basketball Invitational, where it went on to post a 5–1 record and captured its first post-season tournament championship ever with a final series victory over the UTEP Miners. Of the win, Robinson said, "I can't tell you how proud I am of these guys. ... This is a great story for anybody." The Beavers finished with an 18–18 record for the season and had what Rivals.com deemed a top-25 recruiting class as well.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: In July 2009, President Obama alluded to the possibility of Robinson coaching elsewhere by saying: "Craig Robinson is an outstanding coach. ... Anybody in Oregon and anybody who knows sports knows he turned it around. He loves Corvallis, and I'm sure that as a young, successful coach, he's going to start getting offers." Oregon State's 2009–10 season featured an inconsistent level of play in a conference dominated by parity, leading to an 8–10 regular-season conference record for a tie for fifth place. They then lost in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament. Despite the losing record, the team was invited to defend their championship at the 2010 College Basketball Invitational, but lacked focus and energy and were beaten easily in the first round, leaving them with an overall season record of 14–18.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: In March 2010, shortly before the end of the season, the university and Robinson agreed on a two-year contract extension that would keep him in place through the 2015–16 season. In April 2010, Robinson published his memoir, "A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond".


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: The 2010–2011 season was one of regression for Oregon State, with the team falling to a 5–13, ninth-place finish in the conference, and a sharply losing record overall. However, Robinson professed to not being overly worried or disappointed, saying he was encouraged by the development of some of the underclassmen. The Obamas showed their support for Robinson by attending an Oregon State game against Towson in November 2011. The 2011–2012 season saw a Robinson-era best for overall wins, 21, including a pair in the 2012 College Basketball Invitational, but a fourth consecutive losing record within the conference. It was the highest win total for the team since 1990, and the completion of it saw star guard Jared Cunningham leaving after his junior season and being selected in the NBA Draft, the first Beaver to be drafted in over a decade. In June 2012, construction began on a $15 million basketball practice facility that Robinson and previous coaches had long been campaigning for.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Prior to the 2012–2013 season, Robinson characterized his squad as "probably the best team I've had." But the Beavers went in the opposite direction by suffering one of their worst seasons ever, with a penchant for second-half collapses and end-of-game failures. Attendance at Gill Coliseum fell to half capacity, and the student section lost enthusiasm. The team finished with a dead-last 4–14 record in the conference and a 14–18 mark overall. Fans began calling for a change in coaches, but the university athletic director said, "Coach Robinson is our coach, and this administration is in full support of him." Following the season, Robinson appeared on the CBS Sports Network as a studio analyst during the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: The 2013–2014 season saw the team improve to a 16–16 mark overall but have its sixth consecutive losing season in the conference. The team faced the loss of all five of its starters and its five top scorers following the season, due to graduation, transfers, and the like. In March 2014, the Pac-12 announced that Robinson would coach an all-star basketball team that would tour China in August. On May 5, 2014, Robinson was fired from his position as the Oregon State men's head basketball coach. He was given a $4 million buyout of the three remaining years on his contract. The team had failed to make the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or the National Invitation Tournament during Robinson's tenure. His overall 93–104 record did make him the fourth-winningest coach in team history.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: The Milwaukee Bucks hired Robinson as vice president of player and organizational development on August 15, 2016. After one season, he left the Bucks to join the New York Knicks in a similar position.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: On October 7, 2014, ESPN announced the hiring of Robinson as a college basketball analyst. There, he began to work broadcasting games and doing studio work on ESPNU.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: On July 13, 2020, Robinson was named the Executive Director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.


title: Craig Robinson (basketball)

text: Robinson is the older brother of former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and the brother-in-law of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Robinson has been married twice and has four children.


title: Sisu

text: Sisu is a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness and is held by Finns themselves to express their national character. It is generally considered not to have a literal equivalent in English. In contemporary psychology, sisu is shown to have both beneficial and harmful sides.


title: Sisu

text: "Sisu" is extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity, and courage that is presented typically in situations where success is unlikely. It expresses itself in taking action against the odds, and displaying courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity; in other words, deciding on a course of action, and then adhering to it even if repeated failures ensue. It is in some ways similar to equanimity, though "sisu" entails an element of grim stress management.


title: Sisu

text: The English "gutsy" invokes a metaphor related to this one (and found in still other languages): the Finnish usage derives from "sisus", translated as "interior", and as "entrails" or "guts"; a closely related English concept evokes the metaphor grit.


title: Sisu

text: "Sisu" is a term which dates back hundreds of years and is described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. It is a term for going beyond one's mental or physical capacity, and is a central part of the country's culture and collective discourse. However, hardly any empirical research has been done to explore the meaning of this construct as a possible psychological strength resource, and it has long seemed to have a somewhat elusive nature. It has been usually studied as a cultural component among Finns and Finnish Americans, but as a psychological construct has remained under-researched and poorly defined.


title: Sisu

text: As early as the 1940s, attempts were made to grasp the essence of "sisu". The Finnish newspaper "Uusi Suomi" reached out to its audience for their definition of "sisu", and conducted a contest. "Uusi-Suomi" wrote: "All of us somewhat know what sisu is ... [it] has for long been a topic for discussion here in Finland and abroad. But how do we describe and define what sisu really is?". The quest for putting the essence of "sisu" into a definitive form has evidently been around for almost a century. More recently, William R. Aho, professor emeritus of sociology at Rhodes College, raised questions about "sisu", and stated that "we need a good deal of organized, systematic scientific research to discover the scope and depth of "sisu", geographically and situationally, and the depth and strength of both the beliefs and behaviors surrounding and emanating from "sisu"."


title: Sisu

text: Research that was started in 2013 sought to fill this gap and offer a more precise language for discussing the term. While examining "sisu" within the psychological framework, it sought to render it less elusive as a construct by giving it an easily citable definition rooted within the field of positive psychology. "Sisu" as a "psychological power potential" was introduced for the first time in the 3rd World Congress on Positive Psychology in Los Angeles on 29 June 2013. In the study, "sisu" is described as a psychological key competence which enables extraordinary action to overcome a mentally or physically challenging situation. "Sisu" also contributes to what has been named "the action mindset"; a consistent, courageous approach toward challenges which at first seem to exceed our capacities. A related on-line survey (conducted between March and May 2013) tracked the cultural representations of "sisu" among contemporary Finns (and Finnish Americans) and revealed that "sisu" is still deeply valued, and that there is public interest for cultivating this strength capacity as well. All in all, the study received over 1000 responses and the data was the basis for thematic analysis. Among the main findings was the perception of "sisu" as a reserve of power, which enables extraordinary action to overcome mentally or physically challenging situations (rather than being the ability to pursue long-term goals and be persistent). To elaborate on the function of "sisu": it is a psychological potential that enables the individual to tap into strength beyond their pre-conceived resources. Wielding "sisu" in the face of adversity helps individuals push through what first seemed like the boundaries of their mental or physical capacities. Furthermore, "sisu" is an action mindset that equips the individual to choose to take on challenges beyond their observed capacities. It provides the final empowering push when we would otherwise hesitate to act. "Sisu" can be conceptualized as taking action against the odds. Additionally, even though 53% of the respondents believed some people innately have more "sisu", a majority of 83% of the respondents believed that "sisu" is a flexible quality that can be cultivated through conscious practice (rather than being a fixed quality), and the majority of respondents were interested in developing this capacity. The research on sisu is currently continued on the Ph.D. level at Aalto University School of Science in Espoo, Finland.


title: Sisu

text: "Sisu" is not always an entirely positive quality. In Finnish, "pahansisuinen" literally translated means "one possessing bad sisu", a description of a hostile and malignant person. Furthermore, the answers from the "sisu" survey indicate that there can be too much "sisu", and according to the survey answers this leads to bull-headedness, foolhardiness, self-centeredness and inflexible thinking. The study suggests that "sisu" should be informed by reason and cultivated (and practiced) with self-compassion.


title: Sisu

text: Like any trait or psychological capacity, "sisu" is the complex product of genetic, psychological, biological and social factors, and its comprehensive understanding will require studies from multiple scientific perspectives. Finland may have the initial monopoly on "sisu" as a cultural construct, but it is a universal capacity and the potential for it exists within all individuals. The transformative power of narrative is widely acknowledged. Through the process of social transfer of narratives, values become embedded within a culture and connected to the thought processes of its individuals. People, through their choices and actions, bring these narratives to life in a dynamic process which can prime the behavior of an entire nation. Fostering "sisu" may very well be embedded in such behavior, rather than being a genetical trait which one is born with. "Sisu" is a new term in the field of positive psychology, and it may contribute to our understanding of the determinants of resilience, as well as of achievement and the good life. It is suggested that positive psychology research could benefit from focusing future interest on the unique cultural resource of "sisu" that individuals across the globe can leverage; as well as actively examining relevant constructs from other cultures.


title: Sisu

text: "Sisu" has been described as "the word that explains Finland", and the Finns' "favorite word"—"the most wonderful of all their words."


title: Sisu

text: As defined by Roman Schatz in his book "From Finland with Love" (2005), "sisu" is an ability to finish a task successfully.


title: Sisu

text: During the famous Winter War of 1939–1940, the Finnish perseverance in the face of the invasion by the Soviet Union popularized this word in English for a generation.


title: Sisu

text: In what may have been the first use of "sisu" in the English language, on 8 January 1940, "Time" magazine reported:


title: Sisu

text: Even in 2009, "sisu" has been described as so essential to the Finnish national character that "to be a real Finn" you must have it: "willpower, tenacity, persistency."


title: Sisu

text: Singled out for kudos for this attribute was "Finland's wiry old peasant President, Kyösti Kallio—73 years old and full of "sisu" (courage)—last week thought up a new scheme to get supplies for his country."


title: Sisu

text: It was also used to describe the Finnish stubbornness in sticking to its loose alliance with The Third Reich from 1941 to 1944 (in the war against the Soviet Union, which had attacked Finland on 30 November 1939):


title: Sisu

text: During the 1952 Summer Olympics, "sisu" was further described in the context of the continuing Cold War looming over the Finnish capital city of Helsinki:


title: Sisu

text: Well into the 1960s, "sisu" is used to describe the Finnish resistance to the invasion of 20 to 30 years prior and its continuing discontents. In 1960, Austin Goodrich's book, "Study in Sisu: Finland's Fight for Independence", was published by Ballantine. Also in 1960, a notable reviewer of Griffin Taylor's novel, "Mortlake", wrote:


title: Sisu

text: A Finnish heavy metal rock singer injured himself, without noticing, at a concert, to which a reviewer wrote:


title: Sisu

text: The concept is widely known in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is home to a large concentration of Americans of Finnish descent. This has extended to include a popular bumper sticker saying "got sisu?" or simply "SISU".


title: Sisu

text: In 2010, a 63-year-old Yooper named Joe Paquette Jr. of Munising, Michigan, walked 425 miles to the Detroit Lions training facility to bring the spirit of "sisu" to the team.


title: Sisu

text: The non-profit documentary "SISU: Family, Love and Perseverance from Finland to America" was made by Finnish-American filmmaker Marko Albrecht. The documentary looks at sisu through a powerful profile of his late mother, his Finnish-American family, and his uncle Heikki's tragic fight against pancreatic cancer. The film has been a called a time-capsule of modern Finnish-American life.


title: Sisu

text: For example, there are Sisu trucks (and Sisu armored vehicles), the icebreaker MS "Sisu", a brand of strong-tasting pastilles manufactured by Leaf and Suomen Sisu, a Finnish nationalist organisation with connections to other far-right groups.


title: Sisu

text: Sisu is also a male name with increasing popularity. More than 2,000 Finnish men have this name, most of them being born after 2010. The son of The Dudesons's Jukka Hilden is called Sisu.


title: Sisu

text: Globally, there are several fitness-related organizations and endurance sports teams such as the Sisu Project based in Haverhill and Worcester, Massachusetts, US that carry the name "sisu" and base their philosophy on the characteristics included in the concept "sisu", including courage, integrity, honesty, and determination.


title: Sisu

text: Mount Sisu is the name of a mountain first ascended by mountain climbers Veikka Gustafsson and Patrick Degerman in the Antarctic.


title: Sisu

text: "Sisu" is also the name of a London-based hedge-fund, operated by several directors including Joy Seppala. The firm bought the football club Coventry City FC in 2007.


title: Sisu

text: On the Western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the SISU Ski Fest is a popular annual event, highlighting a 21- and 42-kilometer cross-country ski race "finishing" in historic downtown Ironwood.


title: Sisu

text: According to the Finnish Population Register Centre's name service, over 2,000 Finnish men have the first name "Sisu". The name gained popularity especially in the 2000s and 2010s.


title: Sisu

text: In season 2 of McLaren's animated program "Tooned", Sisu is a planet and the true origin of two-time Formula One Drivers' Champion Mika Häkkinen (and possibly 2007 Drivers' Champion Kimi Räikkönen as well, based on a Sisu scene near the end of the episode in question). Häkkinen and Räikkönen are both Finnish and have driven for McLaren; Häkkinen won both of his titles with the team while Räikkönen won his after leaving McLaren for Ferrari.


title: Sisu

text: A starship with a crew of partly Finnish descent in Robert A. Heinlein's 1957 science fiction novel "Citizen of the Galaxy" is named "Sisu."


title: Will Mellor

text: William Mellor (born 3 April 1976) is an English actor, singer and model. He is known for his roles as Jambo Bolton in "Hollyoaks", Gaz Wilkinson in "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps", Warren Stamp in EastEnders, DC Spike Tanner in "No Offence", Steve Connolly in "Broadchurch", Georgie in "Barking!" and Ollie Curry in "White Van Man". In 2021, he began appearing in the ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" as Harvey Gaskell.


title: Will Mellor

text: Mellor first came to the public's attention in 1990, when he played Ben Rowlingson in the children's programme "Children's Ward". In 1995, he joined the cast of the soap opera "Hollyoaks" and played James "Jambo" Bolton until 1998. He had a cameo as Jambo in a Christmas edition of "Hollyoaks". He released a cover of Leo Sayer's "When I Need You", which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart, as well as a follow-up single called "No Matter What I Do", which reached number 23. He also made an appearance in the music video for Boyzone's Comic Relief single "When The Going Gets Tough".


title: Will Mellor

text: Shortly after, Mellor appeared as Greg in "Is Harry on the Boat?". He played Jack Vincent in "Casualty" from 2001 to 2003, and starred as Gaz Wilkinson in the comedy "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" from 2001 to 2011. Mellor starred as "Barmpot" in the postal worker drama "Sorted", and played DC Jed Griffiths in the second series of "Murder Investigation Team". In 2004, Mellor provided the voice for Georgie the dog in the CITV series "Barking!". He played Tom in the second series of "The Street". Mellor won the first series of the BBC singing contest "Comic Relief does Fame Academy" in 2003. He made his "EastEnders" debut on 20 May 2007 playing womanising salesman Warren Stamp.


title: Will Mellor

text: Mellor was a guest star in the BBC fantasy drama "Merlin", playing the villain Valiant in the series second episode of the same name. In October 2008, he starred in "The Prisoner", a documentary about prison life. Mellor portrayed Chris in the British horror thriller film "The Reeds". Mellor did a brief stint on children's television channel CBeebies, in which he read books for the audience. In 2011, he starred in the BBC Three comedy "White Van Man" and the BBC One drama "Waterloo Road".


title: Will Mellor

text: From 2011 to 2012, he played Liam Flynn in the BBC One comedy series "In with the Flynns", as well as appearing in "White Van Man". Mellor had a guest role in the final episode of the BBC Three comedy series "Mongrels". In 2013, he played Steve Connolly in the ITV detective drama "Broadchurch". In 2014, he appeared on BBC One's Kay Mellor drama series "In The Club". In February 2021, it was announced that Mellor would join the cast of "Coronation Street" as Harvey Gaskell, with his first scenes airing in March. From 24 September 2022, Mellor competed in the twentieth series of "Strictly Come Dancing", partnered with professional dancer Nancy Xu. The couple made it to the semi-finals, but were eliminated on 12 December 2022, finishing in fifth place.


title: Will Mellor

text: Mellor met dancer Michelle McSween when they starred together in the stage musical "Oh, What a Night" in 1999. They married in 2007, and have two children. Mellor is an avid supporter of Manchester United.


title: Will Mellor

text: In 2020, in a podcast with fellow actor and friend Ralf Little, Mellor discussed his struggle with depression after the death of his sister six years before. Mellor's father, Bill, died in 2020, two weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. In week 8 of "Strictly Come Dancing", on 12 November 2022, Mellor danced a waltz to the song "Three Times a Lady", as a tribute to his father.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: "La Isla Bonita" is a song by American singer Madonna from her third studio album "True Blue" (1986). Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, with additional lyrics by Bruce Gaitsch, the song was originally presented by Leonard as an instrumental demo to Michael Jackson, who turned it down; Leonard then played it to Madonna, who liked it and wrote the lyrics and melodies. "La Isla Bonita" was Madonna's first song with Latin influences; its instrumentation features Cuban drums, Spanish guitar arrangements, maracas and harmonicas. The lyrics talk about an island named San Pedro; according to Madonna, the song is a tribute to the beauty of Latinos. The song was released as the fifth and final single from "True Blue" on February 25, 1987. It was included on her compilation albums "The Immaculate Collection" (1990), and "Celebration" (2009).


title: La Isla Bonita

text: Upon its release, "La Isla Bonita" was positively received by music critics who, in retrospective reviews, have considered it one of Madonna's best songs. It was also commercially successful, becoming her 11th top five hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and second Adult Contemporary number one; it topped the charts across several countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, where it became her fourth number one. In the accompanying music video, Madonna portrays two opposite characters: a Catholic young woman, and a flamenco dancer; academics applauded the clip for using Hispanic fashion and symbology as icons of beauty and romanticism. The song has been performed in seven of Madonna's concert tours, the last being 2019–2020's Madame X Tour, and covered by multiple artists, including Ricky Martin and Alizée.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: During the autumn of 1985, Madonna started writing and recording songs for her third studio album, "True Blue"; she decided to bring back producer Steve Bray, with whom she had worked on her previous album "Like a Virgin", and also hired a new producer, Patrick Leonard. Leonard had previously worked with Michael Jackson on 1984's Victory Tour; he recalled that after the tour concluded, Jackson's manager Quincy Jones asked him to write "something sort of Sade-like" for the singer. One of the instrumental demos Leonard submitted for Jackson's approval had "some form of a vocal", and included the phrase "La Isla Bonita", but Jackson and Jones did not like it and rejected it. After meeting with Madonna to start working on "True Blue", Leonard showed her the demo, and she worked on it to create some of the lyrics and melodies; "it wouldn't have occurred to me to do anything like that with her. But she liked it", Leonard recalled.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: "La Isla Bonita" was the first song Madonna recorded that incorporated Spanish motifs and lyrics; the singer and Leonard would go on to work together on other similarly Latin-inspired songs, such as "Who’s That Girl" ―from the soundtrack of the film of the same name―and "Spanish Eyes" ―from "Like a Prayer" (1989). To get the translations correct, they talked over the phone with a Hispanic housekeeper. Of working with the producer on the song, Madonna recalled, "Latin rhythms often dominate our uptempo compositions[...] It's like we're possessed. [Leonard and I] both think that we were Latin in another life". She then referred to "La Isla Bonita" as her tribute to the "beauty and mystery of Latin American people". The location of the titular island has been debated, with Cuba, Belize, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic being cited as possibilities. Several sources have speculated that San Pedro Town in Ambergris Caye, Belize, is the factual geographical location; on its official website, the island's Victoria House Resort & Spa posted that the town has been nicknamed "La Isla Bonita" because of the song. During an interview with "Rolling Stone", Madonna herself admitted to not knowing where San Pedro was: "I don't know [where San Pedro is]. At that point, I wasn't a person who went on holidays to beautiful islands. I may have been on the way to the studio and seen an exit ramp for San Pedro".


title: La Isla Bonita

text: "La Isla Bonita" was released as the fifth and final single from "True Blue" on February 25, 1987. It was included on Madonna's compilation albums "The Immaculate Collection" (1990) and "Celebration" (2009), as well as on the Japanese edition of "Something to Remember" (1995). In 2014, while working on her thirteenth studio album "Rebel Heart" (2015) with producer Diplo, Madonna recorded a dubplate of "La Isla Bonita" with new lyrics that referenced trio Major Lazer; this version premiered in March 2015 on BBC Radio 1Xtra.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: "La Isla Bonita" was written and produced by Madonna and Leonard, with additional lyrics by Bruce Gaitsch. Personnel working on the song included Leonard on the keyboard arrangement and programming, Gaitsch on guitars, and Paulinho da Costa as percussionist; background vocals were performed by Siedah Garrett and Edie Lehmann. Described as a Latin pop song by author Rikky Rooksby, the single features instrumentation from Cuban drums, Spanish guitar, maracas, harmonicas, and a mix of synthesized and real drumming. According to the sheet music published by Alfred Publishing Inc., "La Isla Bonita" is set in the time signature of common time, with a tempo of 100 beats per minute. It is written in the key of C minor, with Madonna's voice in a high register, spanning between F to G.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: Lyrically, it describes a "humble observer, captured by the rhythm of an imagined island", and has four lines sung in Spanish. The title "La Isla Bonita" translates to "The Pretty Island". The song starts with a musical introduction performed on Bongos, before descending into synthesized beats from castanets. Madonna sings the chorus in the same G to C range; after the second chorus, there is a Spanish guitar interlude where her voice expands to F minor, which can be heard when she sings "I want to be where the sun warms the sky", before coming down to C minor when she sings the phrase "loves a girl". Toward the end, there is another musical interlude with a harmonica and another chorus. Ending with a gradual fade-out, the song has Madonna utter the words "Él dijo que te ama (He said he loves you)".


title: La Isla Bonita

text: Upon release, "La Isla Bonita" was met with positive reviews from music critics. In his of the singer, J. Randy Taraborrelli deemed it an "exotic [...] enchanting, uptempo Spanish-themed song with an equally enchanting melody". AllMusic's Stewart Mason considered it "True Blue"s "most prescient" track, that sounds "fresh and enjoyably new"; he further singled out the singer's "purring" vocals as one of her "sexiest and most understated performances". "Slant Magazine"s Sal Cinquemani named it "timeless", and one of Madonna's "biggest, most influential hits". In "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay" (2000), William McKeen referred to the single as "tranquil", and as an example of the "Latin-flavored sweet[s] that Blondie could never resist". For "Creem"s Ken Barnes, "['La Isla Bonita'] is no 'Open Your Heart', but its lilting (yet reflective) quality transcends the south-of-the-border cliches". Dawn Keetley in "Public Women, Public Words", said it was "smooth [and] transparent", as well as one of Madonna's "most perfect" songs.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: For Lucy O'Brien, "True Blue"s "sense of romantic thrill" is reflected in songs like "La Isla Bonita". Author Maury Dean felt it was a "tough tune for most males to shrug off". "La Isla Bonita" was referred to as "spunky" by John Leland for "Spin", while Jan DeKnock from the "Chicago Tribune" said it was "charming". From the "Houston Chronicle", Marty Racine considered it one of the album's standout tracks, opining that it is "almost romantic, even if smacks of an overnight fling, where being true-blue is not so difficult". For "Entertainment Weekly"s David Browne, "a 30-ish urban sophisticate [...] making Carmen Miranda-does-MTV moves ought to sound ridiculous. With the help of collaborators like Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard, though [...] [it] turns into a perfectly conceived pop record". Writing for the "New York Times", Jon Pareles said "La Isla Bonita" was one of the singer's "friendlier love songs". More critical was Albumism's Justin Chadwick, who ranked the song among "True Blue"s "campy, borderline contrived" moments.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: Retrospective reviews have been positive. "La Isla Bonita" came in at number 20 of "The Tab"s ranking of Madonna's singles; author Harrison Brocklehurst compared it favorably to "Holiday", and referred to it as "sunset in a song". "Entertainment Weekly"s Chuck Arnold named the song Madonna's 19th best: "this island-breezy ditty is certainly one of the loveliest tunes that [she] has ever done", Arnold wrote. The author also pointed out that the single explored Latin pop "before it became trendy", and noted influence on other songs, such as Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" (2010). For the staff of "Billboard", it was the artist's 14th best song. Bianca Gracie said it was "one of the most romantic songs in her catalog", and applauded her "mature, lush vocals". "La Isla Bonita" was named Madonna's 10th and 11th best song by "PinkNews" Mayer Nassim, and The Backlot's Louis Virtel, respectively; the former called it the "ultimate holiday romance", and the latter, one of her "most timeless tracks [...] As a romance, it’s touching, and as a personal reflection, it’s beautiful". It is Madonna's 30th best single, according to "The Guardian"s Jude Rogers. Despite naming it one of her best singles, the "HuffPost"s Matthew Jacobs opined that "you have to be in the right mood for this one – its middling tempo can feel like a slog". On a similar note, "Gay Star News" Joe Morgan said it was a "divisive" classic. Online magazine "Queerty" hailed "La Isla Bonita", "one of the shiniest gems from [Madonna's] early career". For the staff of "Rolling Stone", it is Madonna's 40th best song. Finally, Nick Levine from "NME" referred to it as a "shimmering Latin pop gem that’s both effortlessly romantic and ever so slightly melancholic".


title: La Isla Bonita

text: On March 21, 1987, "La Isla Bonita" debuted at number 49 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Madonna's 11th consecutive single to be named the week's top new entry, a streak that began in 1984 with "Lucky Star"; it was also one of the most added songs on radio stations. By April 25, the song became Madonna's 12th consecutive top ten hit, a record shared with Michael Jackson; "La Isla Bonita" was the fifth top ten hit from "True Blue", making it the second album by a female artist to score five top ten hits―the first being Janet Jackson's "Control" (1986). On May 2, the song reached its peak at number 4, becoming Madonna's 11th top five hit, a feat surpassed at the time only by the Beatles and Elvis Presley.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: On the Adult Contemporary chart, the single debuted at number 31 on the week of April 4, peaking at number one more than a month later. It was Madonna's second Adult Contemporary chart-topper after "Live to Tell". "La Isla Bonita" also reached number one on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. "Billboard" reported that 75,000copies of the 12-inch single had been sold by July 1987. "La Isla Bonita" came in at number 58 on "Billboard" Hot 100 year-end chart for 1987, and at 34 of the Adult Contemporary year-end chart. In Canada, the single debuted in the 58th position of "RPM"s Top Singles chart on the week of April 4; after ten weeks on the chart, it reached the top position on June 6, 1987. "La Isla Bonita" placed at number 22 on the "RPM" Year-end chart for 1987.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: In the United Kingdom, "La Isla Bonita" debuted at the 5th position of the singles chart on April 4; it reached the first position two weeks later, spending two weeks at number one and eleven on the chart overall. It was Madonna's fourth number one in the country. The single was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipment of 250,000copies of the single. According to "Music Week" magazine, 421,760copies of the single had been sold in the United Kingdom as of 2008. "La Isla Bonita" was Madonna's first number one song in France, where it spent three weeks at the top spot in July 1987, and was certified gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for shipment of 500,000copies. It remains one of Madonna's highest-selling singles in the country, with reported sales exceeding 620,000units. The song was successful across Europe as well, topping the charts in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. "La Isla Bonita" also topped the European Hot 100 Singles chart the week of June 20, 1987. It reached the top five in Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the top ten in Spain.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: The music video for "La Isla Bonita" was directed by Mary Lambert, who had previously worked with Madonna in the videos for "Borderline" and "Like a Virgin" (1984). Filming took place in downtown Los Angeles in March 1987, and lasted four days; over 500 extras of Hispanic descent, including a then-unknown Benicio Del Toro, who was paid $150, participated in the shooting. According to Sharon Oreck, in her book, "Video Slut" (2010), it was a very simple shooting. In the visual, Madonna plays two characters: a short-haired Catholic woman and a "flamboyant" flamenco dancer. As the flamenco dancer, she is dressed in a voluminous red Andalusian-style dress; for the shy, pious Catholic character, she dons a simple white dress.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: The video starts as several Latin people dance in a Spanish "barrio" while Madonna, as the Catholic woman, watches them from her window; she sheds tears in her room and reluctantly ignores their invitation to join them. At one point, she's shown using a rosary to pray, bowing before an altar full of Catholic imagery. The "passionate" flamenco dancer Madonna dances inside a bright red room with red candles, candelabra and, towards the end, leaves to join the dancers in the streets. "La Isla Bonita" had its world premiere on MTV on March 6, 1987, and became the most requested video in the channel's history for a record-breaking 20 consecutive weeks. In Europe, it was the most heavily rotated clip on television. It can be found on Madonna's video compilations "The Immaculate Collection" (1990) and "" (2009).


title: La Isla Bonita

text: According to Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens, authors of "Madonna's Drowned Worlds" (2004), the "austerity and the passivity" of the Catholic character contrasts vividly with the "passion and activity" of the flamenco dancer. In "The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory" (1998), authors Ramona Liera-Schwichtenberg, Deidre Pribram, David Tetzlaff and Ron Scott, argued that although the settings suggest that both of Madonna's characters live in the "barrio" and may be Latina themselves, her portrayal of the flamenco dancer—which he described as "lush, flashy [and] colorful"—contrasts with the Latinos in the street, who are decked out in "sparsely worn out" clothes. The authors said that although she dances and even flirts with them, she does not get really involved. Similarly, Fouz-Hernández and Jarman-Ivens wrote that the "reality" of Madonna's characters is different from that of the Latinos, who are portrayed as poor. In "Totally Awesome 80s" (1995), Matthew Rettenmund noted a link between Latino culture and Catholicism, represented by Madonna's two characters.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: The video was also appreciated for its use of Hispanic fashion as an icon of beauty and romanticism; for example, Colleen McDanell, in her book "Material Christianity" (1998), applauded Madonna for giving "new meaning" to candlestands and "home shrines". Douglas Kellner noted that Madonna's "multiculturalism" and "transgressive moves" helped her appeal to "large and varied youth audiences". Madonna's Spanish-inspired look from the video—boleros, layered skirts with rosary beads and crucifixes—became a fashion trend at the time. "La Isla Bonita" was named Madonna's 34th and 20th best music video by Louis Virtel and Sal Cinquemani, respectively; the staff of "Rolling Stone" described it as "one of her most theatrical".


title: La Isla Bonita

text: In a less favorable review, Ryan Murphy, writing for "The Spokesman-Review", panned it for being "lame, overdone, [and] almost absurd". Murphy compared it negatively to the singer's previous "True Blue" videos, further noticing a "pervading sense of humor [that's] not supposed to be there", specifically in the scene when Madonna dances out in the street. As of 2018, "La Isla Bonita" was one of the singer's most viewed music videos on YouTube.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: "La Isla Bonita" has been included on seven of Madonna's concert tours: Who's That Girl (1987), The Girlie Show (1993), Drowned World (2001), Confessions (2006), Sticky & Sweet (2008―2009), Rebel Heart (2015―2016), and Madame X (2019―2020). On the first one, she wore a Spanish cabaret dress, and was joined by her backup singers Niki Haris, Donna De Lory, and Debra Parson. Jon Pareles, from "The New York Times", opined that Madonna resembled a "tropical temptress" during the number. Two different performances can be found on the videos "Who's That Girl: Live in Japan" and "", filmed in Tokyo on June and in Turin on September, respectively. On The Girlie Show, Madonna performed the song on top of a rising platform, decked in a blue and white striped shirt, while the dancers were dressed as sailors. One of them was bare-chested and played acoustic guitar as she sang. From "The Baltimore Sun", J. D. Considine praised Madonna's musical chemistry with "her first-rate backing band". The performance recorded on November 19, 1993, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, was included on "" home video release (1994).


title: La Isla Bonita

text: "La Isla Bonita" was one of only two of Madonna's 1980s singles performed on the Drowned World Tour. Dressed in black slacks, a backless black dress, and surrounded by a "gaggle of percussionists and dancers", she played acoustic guitar in an "unplugged flamenco" version of the song. Reviewing the London concert, "NME" Alex Needham pointed out that "by the time ['La Isla Bonita'] rolls around, the relief in the audience is palpable and [Madonna] also finally seems relaxed". The performance on August 26, 2001, at Detroit's Palace of Auburn Hills, was recorded and released on the live video album "Drowned World Tour 2001". Madonna sang a "disco-enhanced" version of "La Isla Bonita" on her Confessions Tour; she wore a one-shouldered unitard with ribbons of purple Swarovski crystals across the torso, similar to the one worn by the singers of ABBA, designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. The backdrop screen showed a video that mirrored the "voluptuousness of [her] dancing", according to "Slant Magazine" Ed Gonzalez. The performance from the August 15–16 London concerts was included on the singer's second live album, "The Confessions Tour" (2007).


title: La Isla Bonita

text: On July 7, 2007, Madonna and gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello performed a "crazed hoedown" version of "La Isla Bonita" at the London Live Earth concert. For the Sticky & Sweet Tour, "La Isla Bonita" was given a gypsy theme, with instrumentation from fiddles and accordions. In the number, Madonna gripped a rose in her teeth and was joined by Romani musicians and dancers, including the Ukrainian group Kolpakov Trio. "The Denver Post"s Ricardo Baca considered the performance "the show's brightest, boldest, most daring moment — a triumph of reinvention, like Madonna herself". The performance was included on the "Sticky & Sweet Tour" live album release (2010), recorded during the four concerts in Buenos Aires, Argentina.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: On the Rebel Heart Tour, Madonna did a flamenco rendition of the song complete with "stomps, claps and shouts". She wore a matador "traje de luces" with a giant M embroidered on the back, custom-made by a Spanish tailor from Zaragoza. "Pitchfork" T. Cole Rachel noted that "La Isla Bonita" was one of the tour's numbers that "resulted in nearly deafening arena-sized sing-alongs". The song's performance at the March 19–20, 2016 shows in Sydney's Allphones Arena was recorded and released on Madonna's fifth live album, "Rebel Heart Tour" (2017). On July 27, 2017, Madonna sang "La Isla Bonita" on Leonardo DiCaprio's annual fundraising gala in Saint-Tropez, France.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: A guitar cha-cha-chá mashup of "La Isla Bonita" and a song titled "Welcome to My Fado Club" was performed on the singer's Madame X Tour. The stage was set up as a Lisbon nightclub, and Madonna changed the lyrics to "my Portuguese lullaby". At one point, she took off one of her gloves and said, "this is as X-rated as it's gonna get tonight". For the "Los Angeles Daily News", Kelli Skye Fadroski opined that Madonna "soared" through the number. On October 9, 2021, following the release of the "Madame X" concert film, Madonna gave an "intimate cabaret performance" in the basement of Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem restaurant Red Rooster, and sang lounge renditions of "La Isla Bonita", "Madame X" album tracks "Dark Ballet" and "Crazy" (2019), and Cape Verdean coladeira song "Sodade"; she was dressed in a black cocktail dress with a "dramatic leg slit", lace gloves, and long blonde wig.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: In 1986, before Madonna released "La Isla Bonita" as a single, Dutch singer released a cover of the song, which peaked at number 25 in the Netherlands; in July 1987, a cover by Mexican singer Byanka reached number 45 on the "Billboard" Hot Latin Songs chart. In 1999, "La Isla Bonita" was sampled by Chilean singer Deetah on her song "El Paraiso Rico", from her album "Deadly Cha Cha". American rapper Black Rob's song "Spanish Fly", included on his album "Life Story" (2000), features Jennifer Lopez singing a chorus based on "La Isla Bonita". In 2004, American actor David Hasselhoff included a rendition on his album "Sings America". That same year, American rapper Mase sampled the song's hook for his own "My Harlem Lullaby", found on the album "Welcome Back". In 2008, French singer Alizée posted a cover of the song on her official MySpace page; a studio version was then included on the Mexican Tour Edition of her third studio album, "Psychédélices", and became a top ten airplay hit in Mexico.


title: La Isla Bonita

text: In 2010, American blogger Perez Hilton released "Gagalupe", a parody of "La Isla Bonita" with lyrics that mocked Madonna's beliefs. The next year, "Love 2 Love U", an unreleased song by American singer Britney Spears that heavily sampled "La Isla Bonita", leaked online. Aired in February 2012, the twelfth episode of the third season of American television series "Glee", "The Spanish Teacher", had guest star Ricky Martin singing the song with actress Naya Rivera, who played the character Santana Lopez. This cover peaked at number 99 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 93 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart. "Mamacita", a 2020 song by American group Black Eyed Peas and Puerto Rican singer Ozuna, samples "La Isla Bonita".


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Arrow's impossibility theorem, the general possibility theorem or Arrow's paradox is an impossibility theorem in social choice theory that states that when voters have three or more distinct alternatives (options), no ranked voting electoral system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide (complete and transitive) ranking while also meeting the specified set of criteria: "unrestricted domain", "non-dictatorship", "Pareto efficiency", and "independence of irrelevant alternatives". The theorem is often cited in discussions of voting theory as it is further interpreted by the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem. The theorem is named after economist and Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow, who demonstrated the theorem in his doctoral thesis and popularized it in his 1951 book "Social Choice and Individual Values". The original paper was titled "A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare".


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In short, the theorem states that no rank-order single-winner electoral system can be designed that always satisfies these three "fairness" criteria:


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Cardinal voting electoral systems are not covered by the theorem, as they convey more information than rank orders. However, Gibbard's theorem shows that strategic voting remains a problem.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: The axiomatic approach Arrow adopted can treat all conceivable rules (that are based on preferences) within one unified framework. In that sense, the approach is qualitatively different from the earlier one in voting theory, in which rules were investigated one by one. One can therefore say that the contemporary paradigm of social choice theory started from this theorem.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: The practical consequences of the theorem are debatable: Arrow has said "Most systems are not going to work badly all of the time. All I proved is that all can work badly at times."


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: The need to aggregate preferences occurs in many disciplines: in welfare economics, where one attempts to find an economic outcome which would be acceptable and stable; in decision theory, where a person has to make a rational choice based on several criteria; and most naturally in electoral systems, which are mechanisms for extracting a governance-related decision from a multitude of voters' preferences.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: The framework for Arrow's theorem assumes that we need to extract a preference order on a given set of options (outcomes). Each individual in the society (or equivalently, each decision criterion) gives a particular order of preferences on the set of outcomes. We are searching for a ranked voting electoral system, called a "social welfare function" ("preference aggregation rule"), which transforms the set of preferences ("profile" of preferences) into a single global societal preference order. Arrow's theorem says that if the decision-making body has at least two members and at least three options to decide among, then it is impossible to design a social welfare function that satisfies all these conditions (assumed to be a reasonable requirement of a fair electoral system) at once:


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: A later (1963) version of Arrow's theorem replaced the monotonicity and non-imposition criteria with:


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: This later version is more general, having weaker conditions. The axioms of monotonicity, non-imposition, and IIA together imply Pareto efficiency, whereas Pareto efficiency (itself implying non-imposition) and IIA together do not imply monotonicity.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Arrow's death-of-a-candidate example (1963, page 26) suggests that the agenda (the set of feasible alternatives) shrinks from, say, X = {a, b, c} to S = {a, b} because of the death of candidate c. This example is misleading since it can give the reader an impression that IIA is a condition involving "two" agenda and "one" profile. The fact is that IIA involves just "one" agendum ({x, y} in case of pairwise independence) but "two" profiles. If the condition is applied to this confusing example, it requires this: Suppose an aggregation rule satisfying IIA chooses b from the agenda {a, b} when the profile is given by (cab, cba), that is, individual 1 prefers c to a to b, 2 prefers c to b to a. Then, it must still choose b from {a, b} if the profile were, say: (abc, bac); (acb, bca); (acb, cba); or (abc, cba).


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In different words, Arrow defines IIA as saying that the social preferences between alternatives x and y depend only on the individual preferences between x and y (not on those involving other candidates).


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Let be a set of outcomes, a number of voters or decision criteria. We shall denote the set of all full linear orderings of by .


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: An -tuple of voters' preferences is called a "preference profile". In its strongest and simplest form, Arrow's impossibility theorem states that whenever the set of possible alternatives has more than 2 elements, then the following three conditions become incompatible:


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Based on two proofs appearing in "Economic Theory". For simplicity we have presented all rankings as if ties are impossible. A complete proof taking possible ties into account is not essentially different from the one given here, except that one ought to say "not above" instead of "below" or "not below" instead of "above" in some cases. Full details are given in the original articles.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: We will prove that any social choice system respecting unrestricted domain, unanimity, and independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) is a dictatorship. The key idea is to identify a "pivotal voter" whose ballot swings the societal outcome. We then prove that this voter is a partial dictator (in a specific technical sense, described below). Finally we conclude by showing that all of the partial dictators are the same person, hence this voter is a dictator.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Say there are three choices for society, call them A, B, and C. Suppose first that everyone prefers option B the least: everyone prefers A to B, and everyone prefers C to B. By unanimity, society must also prefer both A and C to B. Call this situation "profile 0".


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: On the other hand, if everyone preferred B to everything else, then society would have to prefer B to everything else by unanimity. Now arrange all the voters in some arbitrary but fixed order, and for each "i" let "profile i" be the same as "profile 0", but move B to the top of the ballots for voters 1 through "i". So "profile 1" has B at the top of the ballot for voter 1, but not for any of the others. "Profile 2" has B at the top for voters 1 and 2, but no others, and so on.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Since B eventually moves to the top of the societal preference, there must be some profile, number "k", for which B "first" moves "above" A in the societal rank. We call the voter "k" whose ballot change causes this to happen the "pivotal voter for B over A". Note that the pivotal voter for B over A is not, a priori, the same as the pivotal voter for A over B. In part three of the proof we will show that these do turn out to be the same.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Also note that by IIA the same argument applies if "profile 0" is any profile in which A is ranked above B by every voter, and the pivotal voter for B over A will still be voter "k". We will use this observation below.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In this part of the argument we refer to voter "k", the pivotal voter for B over A, as the "pivotal voter" for simplicity. We will show that the pivotal voter dictates society's decision for B over C. That is, we show that no matter how the rest of society votes, if "pivotal voter" ranks B over C, then that is the societal outcome. Note again that the dictator for B over C is not a priori the same as that for C over B. In part three of the proof we will see that these turn out to be the same too.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In the following, we call voters 1 through "k − 1", "segment one", and voters "k + 1" through "N", "segment two". To begin, suppose that the ballots are as follows:


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Then by the argument in part one (and the last observation in that part), the societal outcome must rank A above B. This is because, except for a repositioning of C, this profile is the same as "profile k − 1" from part one. Furthermore, by unanimity the societal outcome must rank B above C. Therefore, we know the outcome in this case completely.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Now suppose that pivotal voter moves B above A, but keeps C in the same position and imagine that any number (even all!) of the other voters change their ballots to move B below C, without changing the position of A. Then aside from a repositioning of C this is the same as "profile k" from part one and hence the societal outcome ranks B above A. Furthermore, by IIA the societal outcome must rank A above C, as in the previous case. In particular, the societal outcome ranks B above C, even though Pivotal Voter may have been the "only" voter to rank B above C. By IIA, this conclusion holds independently of how A is positioned on the ballots, so pivotal voter is a dictator for B over C.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In this part of the argument we refer back to the original ordering of voters, and compare the positions of the different pivotal voters (identified by applying parts one and two to the other pairs of candidates). First, the pivotal voter for B over C must appear earlier (or at the same position) in the line than the dictator for B over C: As we consider the argument of part one applied to B and C, successively moving B to the top of voters' ballots, the pivot point where society ranks B above C must come at or before we reach the dictator for B over C. Likewise, reversing the roles of B and C, the pivotal voter for C over B must be at or later in line than the dictator for B over C. In short, if "k" denotes the position of the pivotal voter for X over Y (for any two candidates X and Y), then we have shown


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: and the same argument for other pairs shows that all the pivotal voters (and hence all the dictators) occur at the same position in the list of voters. This voter is the dictator for the whole election.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Although Arrow's theorem is a mathematical result, it is often expressed in a non-mathematical way with a statement such as "no voting method is fair", "every ranked voting method is flawed", or "the only voting method that isn't flawed is a dictatorship". These statements are simplifications of Arrow's result which are not universally considered to be true. What Arrow's theorem does state is that a deterministic preferential voting mechanism—that is, one where a preference order is the only information in a vote, and any possible set of votes gives a unique result—cannot comply with all of the conditions given above simultaneously.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Various theorists have suggested weakening the IIA criterion as a way out of the paradox. Proponents of ranked voting methods contend that the IIA is an unreasonably strong criterion. It is the one breached in most useful electoral systems. Advocates of this position point out that failure of the standard IIA criterion is trivially implied by the possibility of cyclic preferences. If voters cast ballots as follows:


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: then the pairwise majority preference of the group is that A wins over B, B wins over C, and C wins over A: these yield rock-paper-scissors preferences for any pairwise comparison. In this circumstance, "any" aggregation rule that satisfies the very basic majoritarian requirement that a candidate who receives a majority of votes must win the election, will fail the IIA criterion, if social preference is required to be transitive (or acyclic). To see this, suppose that such a rule satisfies IIA. Since majority preferences are respected, the society prefers A to B (two votes for A > B and one for B > A), B to C, and C to A. Thus a cycle is generated, which contradicts the assumption that social preference is transitive.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: So, what Arrow's theorem really shows is that any majority-wins electoral system is a non-trivial game, and that game theory should be used to predict the outcome of most voting mechanisms. This could be seen as a discouraging result, because a game need not have efficient equilibria; e.g., a ballot could result in an alternative nobody really wanted in the first place, yet everybody voted for.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: The IIA property might not be satisfied in human decision-making of realistic complexity because the "scalar" preference ranking is effectively derived from the weighting—not usually explicit—of a "vector" of attributes (one book dealing with the Arrow theorem invites the reader to consider the related problem of creating a scalar measure for the track and field decathlon event—e.g. how does one make scoring 600 points in the discus event "commensurable" with scoring 600 points in the 1500 m race) and this scalar ranking can depend sensitively on the weighting of different attributes, with the tacit weighting itself affected by the context and contrast created by apparently "irrelevant" choices. Edward MacNeal discusses this sensitivity problem with respect to the ranking of "most livable city" in the chapter "Surveys" of his book "MathSemantics: making numbers talk sense" (1994).


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In an attempt to escape from the negative conclusion of Arrow's theorem, social choice theorists have investigated various possibilities ("ways out"). This section includes approaches that deal with


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Since these two approaches often overlap, we discuss them at the same time. What is characteristic of these approaches is that they investigate various possibilities by eliminating or weakening or replacing one or more conditions (criteria) that Arrow imposed.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Several theorists (e.g., Fishburn and Kirman and Sondermann) point out that when one drops the assumption that there are only finitely many individuals, one can find aggregation rules that satisfy all of Arrow's other conditions.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: However, such aggregation rules are practically of limited interest, since they are based on ultrafilters, highly non-constructive mathematical objects. In particular, Kirman and Sondermann argue that there is an "invisible dictator" behind such a rule. Mihara shows that such a rule violates algorithmic computability. These results can be seen to establish the robustness of Arrow's theorem.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: On the other hand, the ultrafilters (indeed, constructing them in an infinite model relies on the axiom of choice) are inherent in finite models as well (with no need of the axiom of choice).


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: They can be interpreted as decisive hierarchies, with the only difference that the hierarchy's top level - Arrow's dictator - always exists in a finite model but can be unattainable (= missing) in an infinite hierarchy.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In the latter case, the "invisible dictator" is nothing else but the infinite decisive hierarchy itself.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Since dictators are inseparable from decisive hierarchies, the Dictatorship prohibition automatically prohibits decisive hierarchies, which is much less self-evident than the Dictatorship prohibition.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: When there are only two alternatives to choose from, May's theorem shows that only simple majority rule satisfies a certain set of criteria (e.g., equal treatment of individuals and of alternatives; increased support for a winning alternative should not make it into a losing one). On the other hand, when there are at least three alternatives, Arrow's theorem points out the difficulty of collective decision making. Why is there such a sharp difference between the case of less than three alternatives and that of at least three alternatives?


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: "Nakamura's theorem" (about the core of simple games) gives an answer more generally. It establishes that if the number of alternatives is less than a certain integer called the Nakamura number, then the rule in question will identify "best" alternatives without any problem; if the number of alternatives is greater or equal to the Nakamura number, then the rule will not always work, since for some profile a voting paradox (a cycle such as alternative A socially preferred to alternative B, B to C, and C to A) will arise. Since the Nakamura number of majority rule is 3 (except the case of four individuals), one can conclude from Nakamura's theorem that majority rule can deal with up to two alternatives rationally. Some super-majority rules (such as those requiring 2/3 of the votes) can have a Nakamura number greater than 3, but such rules violate other conditions given by Arrow.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: A common way "around" Arrow's paradox is limiting the alternative set to two alternatives. Thus, whenever more than two alternatives should be put to the test, it seems very tempting to use a mechanism that pairs them and votes by pairs. As tempting as this mechanism seems at first glance, it is generally far from satisfying even Pareto efficiency, not to mention IIA. The specific order by which the pairs are decided strongly influences the outcome. This is not necessarily a bad feature of the mechanism. Many sports use the tournament mechanism—essentially a pairing mechanism—to choose a winner. This gives considerable opportunity for weaker teams to win, thus adding interest and tension throughout the tournament. This means that the person controlling the order by which the choices are paired (the agenda maker) has great control over the outcome. In any case, when viewing the entire voting process as one game, Arrow's theorem still applies.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Another approach is relaxing the universality condition, which means restricting the domain of aggregation rules. The best-known result along this line assumes "single peaked" preferences.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Duncan Black has shown that if there is only one dimension on which every individual has a "single-peaked" preference, then all of Arrow's conditions are met by majority rule. Suppose that there is some predetermined linear ordering of the alternative set. An individual's preference is "single-peaked" with respect to this ordering if he has some special place that he likes best along that line, and his dislike for an alternative grows larger as the alternative goes further away from that spot (i.e., the graph of his utility function has a single peak if alternatives are placed according to the linear ordering on the horizontal axis). For example, if voters were voting on where to set the volume for music, it would be reasonable to assume that each voter had their own ideal volume preference and that as the volume got progressively too loud or too quiet they would be increasingly dissatisfied.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: If the domain is restricted to profiles in which every individual has a single peaked preference with respect to the linear ordering, then "simple" aggregation rules, which include majority rule, have an "acyclic" (defined below) social preference, hence "best" alternative. In particular, when there are odd number of individuals, then the social preference becomes transitive, and the socially "best" alternative is equal to the median of all the peaks of the individuals (Black's median voter theorem). Under single-peaked preferences, the majority rule is in some respects the most natural voting mechanism.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: One can define the notion of "single-peaked" preferences on higher-dimensional sets of alternatives. However, one can identify the "median" of the peaks only in exceptional cases. Instead, we typically have the destructive situation suggested by McKelvey's Chaos Theorem: for any "x" and "y", one can find a sequence of alternatives such that "x" is beaten by "x" by a majority, "x" by "x", up to "x" by "y".


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: By relaxing the transitivity of social preferences, we can find aggregation rules that satisfy Arrow's other conditions. If we impose "neutrality" (equal treatment of alternatives) on such rules, however, there exists an individual who has a "veto". So the possibility provided by this approach is also very limited.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: First, suppose that a social preference is "quasi-transitive" (instead of transitive); this means that the strict preference formula_2 ("better than") is transitive: if formula_3 and formula_4, then formula_5. Then, there do exist non-dictatorial aggregation rules satisfying Arrow's conditions, but such rules are "oligarchic". This means that there exists a coalition L such that L is "decisive" (if every member in L prefers x to y, then the society prefers x to y), and each member in L "has a veto" (if she prefers x to y, then the society cannot prefer y to x).


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Second, suppose that a social preference is "acyclic" (instead of transitive): there do not exist alternatives formula_6 that form a "cycle" (formula_7). Then, provided that there are at least as many alternatives as individuals, an aggregation rule satisfying Arrow's other conditions is "collegial". This means that there are individuals who belong to the intersection ("collegium") of all decisive coalitions. If there is someone who has a veto, then he belongs to the collegium. If the rule is assumed to be neutral, then it does have someone who has a veto.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Finally, Brown's theorem left open the case of acyclic social preferences where the number of alternatives is less than the number of individuals. One can give a definite answer for that case using the "Nakamura number". See limiting the number of alternatives.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: There are numerous examples of aggregation rules satisfying Arrow's conditions except IIA. The Borda rule is one of them. These rules, however, are susceptible to "strategic manipulation" by individuals.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Wilson (1972) shows that if an aggregation rule is non-imposed and non-null, then there is either a dictator or an inverse dictator, provided that Arrow's conditions other than Pareto are also satisfied. Here, an "inverse dictator" is an individual "i" such that whenever "i" prefers "x" to "y", then the society prefers "y" to "x".


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Amartya Sen offered both relaxation of transitivity and removal of the Pareto principle. He demonstrated another interesting impossibility result, known as the "impossibility of the Paretian Liberal" (see liberal paradox for details). Sen went on to argue that this demonstrates the futility of demanding Pareto optimality in relation to voting mechanisms.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Andranik Tangian (2010) introduced measures of dictator's "representativeness", for instance, the "popularity index" defined as the average size of the social group whose pairwise preferences are shared (that is, represented) by the dictator, averaged over all pairs of alternatives and all preference profiles. It was shown that there always exist "good" Arrow's dictators who on the average represent a majority. Since they are rather representatives of the society - like democratically elected presidents - there are no self-evident reasons to prohibit them. Restricting the notion of dictator to "bad" ones only, i.e. those who on the average represent a minority, Arrow's axioms were proven to be consistent.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: In social decision making, to rank all alternatives is not usually a goal. It often suffices to find some alternative. The approach focusing on choosing an alternative investigates either "social choice functions" (functions that map each preference profile into an alternative) or "social choice rules" (functions that map each preference profile into a subset of alternatives).


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: As for social choice functions, the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem is well-known, which states that if a social choice function whose range contains at least three alternatives is strategy-proof, then it is dictatorial.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: As for social choice rules, we should assume there is a social preference behind them. That is, we should regard a rule as choosing the maximal elements ("best" alternatives) of some social preference. The set of maximal elements of a social preference is called the "core". Conditions for existence of an alternative in the core have been investigated in two approaches. The first approach assumes that preferences are at least "acyclic" (which is necessary and sufficient for the preferences to have a maximal element on any "finite" subset). For this reason, it is closely related to relaxing transitivity. The second approach drops the assumption of acyclic preferences. Kumabe and Mihara adopt this approach. They make a more direct assumption that individual preferences have maximal elements, and examine conditions for the social preference to have a maximal element. See Nakamura number for details of these two approaches.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Arrow originally rejected cardinal utility as a meaningful tool for expressing social welfare, and so focused his theorem on preference rankings, but later stated that a cardinal score system with three or four classes "is probably the best".


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Arrow's framework assumes that individual and social preferences are "orderings" (i.e., satisfy completeness and transitivity) on the set of alternatives. This means that if the preferences are represented by a utility function, its value is an "ordinal" utility in the sense that it is meaningful so far as the greater value indicates the better alternative. For instance, having ordinal utilities of 4, 3, 2, 1 for alternatives a, b, c, d, respectively, is the same as having 1000, 100.01, 100, 0, which in turn is the same as having 99, 98, 1, .997. They all represent the ordering in which a is preferred to b to c to d. The assumption of "ordinal" preferences, which precludes "interpersonal comparisons" of utility, is an integral part of Arrow's theorem.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: For various reasons, an approach based on cardinal utility, where the utility has a meaning beyond just giving a ranking of alternatives, is not common in contemporary economics. However, once one adopts that approach, one can take intensities of preferences into consideration, or one can compare (i) gains and losses of utility or (ii) levels of utility, across different individuals. In particular, Harsanyi (1955) gives a justification of utilitarianism (which evaluates alternatives in terms of the sum of individual utilities), originating from Jeremy Bentham. Hammond (1976) gives a justification of the maximin principle (which evaluates alternatives in terms of the utility of the worst-off individual), originating from John Rawls.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Not all voting methods use, as input, only an ordering of all candidates. Methods which don't, often called "rated" or "cardinal" (as opposed to "ranked", "ordinal", or "preferential") electoral system, can be viewed as using information that only cardinal utility can convey. In that case, it is not surprising if some of them satisfy all of Arrow's conditions that are reformulated.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Whether such a claim is correct depends on how each condition is reformulated. Other rated electoral system which pass certain generalizations of Arrow's criteria include approval voting and majority judgment. Note that Arrow's theorem does not apply to single-winner methods such as these, but Gibbard's theorem still does: no non-defective electoral system is fully strategy-free, so the informal dictum that "no electoral system is perfect" still has a mathematical basis.


title: Arrow's impossibility theorem

text: Finally, though not an approach investigating some kind of rules, there is a criticism by James M. Buchanan, Charles Plott, and others. It argues that it is silly to think that there might be "social" preferences that are analogous to "individual" preferences. Arrow (1963, Chapter 8) answers this sort of criticism seen in the early period, which come at least partly from misunderstanding.


title: Paul McCrane

text: Paul David McCrane (born January 19, 1961) is an American film, television and theatre actor, as well as a television director and singer. He is known for his portrayal of Montgomery MacNeil in the 1980 film "Fame", Frank Berry in the 1984 film "The Hotel New Hampshire", Emil Antonowsky in "RoboCop", and Robert Romano on the NBC medical drama television series "ER".


title: Paul McCrane

text: McCrane was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Eileen C. (née Manyak), a nurse, and James J. McCrane, Jr., an actor and writer. He has a brother, Jim, and three sisters, Maureen, Barbara, and Deirdre. His family moved to Richboro, Pennsylvania, where he lived until he moved to New York City after graduating from Holy Ghost Preparatory School in 1978. He studied theatre at HB Studio in New York City.


title: Paul McCrane

text: An early role, when he was just 18 years of age, is in a short scene in "Rocky II", playing a multi-fracture patient who asks for Rocky's autograph on his head cast ("Hey Rocky...sign my head!").


title: Paul McCrane

text: With an abundance of red hair, McCrane portrayed the earnest Montgomery MacNeil in "Fame". He was the lead vocalist on three songs in the feature film: "Dogs in the Yard", "Miles from Here" and "Is it Okay if I Call You Mine?" He also had a solo in "I Sing the Body Electric".


title: Paul McCrane

text: Later, he played confused Frank Berry in "The Hotel New Hampshire", murderous Emil Antonowsky in "RoboCop", followed by astronaut Pete Conrad in "From the Earth to the Moon", Guard Trout in "The Shawshank Redemption", cancer-absorbing mutant Leonard Betts in "The X-Files". After a recurring role as the snarky Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano on "ER", he became a regular cast member (1997–2003) and returned for one episode during its 15th and final season (2008). McCrane guest-starred in "24" Seasons 5 and 6 as Graem Bauer. He has also appeared on "Ugly Betty" and "".


title: Paul McCrane

text: In 2011, McCrane took on the recurring role of Assistant District Attorney Josh Peyton in the NBC television program "Harry's Law," a project of producer David E. Kelley. McCrane won the 2011 Emmy Award for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in the role. Starting 2019, he has a recurring role in the CBS TV series "All Rise".