L interprétation stochastique du sociogramme et le problème des choix exceptionnels; A statistical interpretation of the sociogram and the determination of exceptional choice

The mutual designation of a preferred member among a group, be it for presidency, a special mandate or even for psychosocial purposes, proceeds frequently by Moreno s sociogram technique: in its simpler form, each member votes for some other member, and the one who receives a majority of votes is elected. But, is this elected member really preferred, or may his election be ascribed to some random, haphazard voting? This article explores the statistical aspects of this electoral process and incidentally grazes the arcane concept of the partitions of an integer.