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Method

ELECTRE

Outranking methods that compare alternatives through concordance and discordance, allowing “incomparable” instead of forcing everything onto one score.

The founder

Bernard Roy

1934–2017 · Université Paris-Dauphine

The father of the European “outranking” school of decision aiding and founder of the LAMSADE lab. In the 1960s he created ELECTRE, arguing that sometimes two options are simply incomparable, and a good method should say so rather than fake a winner.

ELECTRE (1960s)OutrankingLAMSADE

The idea

Who outranks whom

ABCAn arrow means “outranks”. A outranks B and C, so A is preferred.

In five steps

1

Criteria & weights

Set criteria and their importance.

2

Concordance

Coalition of criteria backing a over b.

3

Discordance

Criteria strongly opposing it (veto).

4

Outranking

a outranks b if backed and not vetoed.

5

Exploit

Rank or choose from the relation.

Concordance

The share of criteria (by weight) that agree “a is at least as good as b.” High concordance supports an outranking.

Discordance & veto

If a single criterion is far too against it, a veto blocks the outranking, no matter how strong the rest.

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Roy, B. (1991). The outranking approach and the foundations of ELECTRE methods. Theory and Decision, 31, 49–73.