https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510070090
Dictatorship from majority rule voting
1
Laboratoire des Milieux Désordonnés et Hétérogènes
Laboratoire associé au CNRS (UMR n° 7603)., Tour 13 - Case 86, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
2
Institute for Physical Chemistry, University of Cologne, Luxemburger Strasse 116, 50939 Köln, Germany
Received:
21
July
2000
Published online: 15 November 2000
Majority rule voting in a multi-level system is studied using tools from
the physics of disorder. We are not dealing with nation-wide
general elections but rather with hierarchical organisations made of
small committees. While in theory, for a two candidate election, the
critical threshold to absolute power is 
, the usual existence of
some local and reasonable bias makes it asymmetric, transforming a
democratic system in effect to a dictatorship. The underlying dynamics of
this democratic self-elimination is studied using a simulation which
visualizes the full process. In addition the effect of non-voting persons
(abstention, sickness, apathy) is also studied. It is found to have an
additional drastic effect on the asymmetry of the threshold value to
power. Some possible applications are mentioned.
PACS: 05.45-a – Nonlinear dynamics and nonlinear dynamical systems / 87.23.Ge – Dynamics of social systems / 87.23.Kg – Dynamics of evolution / 05.50+q – Lattice theory and statistics (Ising, Potts, etc.)
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2000
