Cycles in Liquid Democracy: A Game-Theoretic Justification
arXiv:2607.12610
The paper models strategic behavior in liquid democracy under uncertainty, showing that delegation cycles can arise as Nash equilibria and analyzing their existence, structure, and quality through game-theoretic analysis and computational experiments.
Abstract
A common criticism of liquid democracy within the relevant academic literature is that delegation cycles can occur, seemingly resulting in unused voting power. Yet, practitioners argue that delegation cycles are not only unproblematic but are even formed intentionally by participants. To bring theory closer to reality, we introduce a model that captures this strategic behavior under uncertainty. We study the existence, structure and quality of Nash equilibria, revealing that delegation cycles naturally emerge. To complement these findings, we perform computational experiments using best-response dynamics.