Smith set

In voting systems, the Smith set is the smallest set of candidates in a particular election who, when paired off in pairwise elections, can beat all other candidates outside the set. In most elections, this set usually consists of only one candidate, the Condorcet winner. However, sometimes when the electorate is conflicted (as in Condorcet's paradox), the set has at least one cycle of candidates for whom A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A. See also Schwartz set.