Hierarchy in social organization

S.v Buldyrev, N.v Dokholyan, S Erramilli, M Hong, J.y Kim, G Malescio and H.e Stanley

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2003, vol. 330, issue 3, 653-659

Abstract: We find that area and population distributions of nations follow an inverse power-law, as is known for cities, but with a different exponent. To interpret this result, we develop a growth model based on the geometrical properties of partitioning of the plane. The substantial agreement between the model and the actual nation distributions motivates the hypothesis that the distribution of aggregates of organisms is related to land partitioning. To test this hypothesis we follow the development of bacterial colonies of Escherichia coli, which, compared to humans, are on a completely different level of complexity. We find that the distributions of E. coli colonies follow an inverse power law with exponent similar to that of nations.

Keywords: Complex systems; Bacterial colonies; Urban aggregates; Social organization; Multiplicative process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:330:y:2003:i:3:p:653-659

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.041

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