The Spread of Opinions and Proportional Voting

Abstract

Election results are determined by numerous social factors that affect the formation of opinion of the voters, including the network of interactions between them and the dynamics of opinion influence. In this work we study the result of proportional elections using an opinion dynamics model similar to simple opinion spreading over a complex network. Erdos-Renyi, Barabasi-Albert, regular lattices and randomly augmented lattices are considered as models of the underlying social networks. The model reproduces the power law behavior of number of candidates with a given number of votes found in real elections with the correct slope, a cutoff for larger number of votes and a plateau for small number of votes. It is found that the small world property of the underlying network is fundamental for the emergence of the power law regime.

arXiv comment10 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Emergence of scaling in random networks
• Statistical mechanics of complex networks
• The structure and function of complex networks
• Evolution of networks
• Topology of evolving networks: local events and universality
• Scaling and percolation in the small-world network model
• Opinion Formation on a Deterministic Pseudo-fractal Network
• Generalized Zipf's Law in proportional voting processes

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Statistical physics of social dynamics
• Is the Voter Model a model for voters?
• Scaling and universality in proportional elections
• Scaling laws and universality in the choice of election candidates
• Role of noise and agents' convictions on opinion spreading in a three-state voter-like model
• Engagement in the electoral processes: scaling laws and the role of the political positions
• Critical noise can make the minority candidate win: The US Presidential Election cases
• A generalized linear threshold model for an improved description of the spreading dynamics
• Role of the plurality rule in multiple choices
• Stylized facts in Brazilian vote distributions
• A Generalized Sznajd Model
• On the Empirical Relevance of the Transient in Opinion Models
• Correlations between political party size and voter memory: A statistical analysis of opinion polls
• Social Influence with Recurrent Mobility with multiple options
• Critical states in Political Trends. How much reliable is a poll on Twitter? A study by means of the Potts Model
• Impact of network randomness on multiple opinion dynamics
• Analyzing Trails in Complex Networks
• A novel analytical formulation of the Axelrod model
• The Fractured Nature of British Politics
• Universality in voting behavior: an empirical analysis