Modeling society with a responsible elite

Ya. Tsodikova and P. Chebotarev
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Ya. Tsodikova: V. A. Trapeznikov Institute of Control Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
P. Chebotarev: The Technion, Israel

Journal of the New Economic Association, 2025, vol. 66, issue 1, 12-35

Abstract: Within the framework of the ViSE (Voting in a Stochastic Environment) model, we examine the dynamics in a society, part of which can be considered an elite. The model allows us to analyze the influence of social attitudes, such as collectivism, individualism, altruism on the well-being of agents. The dynamics is determined by collective decisions and changes in the structure of society, in particular, by the formation of groups of cooperating agents. It is found that the presence of a "responsible elite", combining the support of other agents with limited concern for their own benefit, stabilizes society and eliminates the "pit of losses" paradox. The benefit to society from having a responsible elite is comparable to that from having a prosocial group of the same size. If the elite radically increases the weight of the group component in its combined voting strategy, then its incomes rise sharply, while society's incomes decline. If, in response to the selfish transformation of the elite, a new responsible elite emerges, proportionally larger than the previous one, then society will stabilize again, and the old elite will lose its dominant position. This process can be repeated as long as the size of society allows the formation of new responsible elites of the required size.

Keywords: voting; stochastic environment; ViSE model; responsible elite; prosociality; cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 D64 D72 D73 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nea:journl:y:2025:i:66:p:12-35

DOI: 10.31737/22212264_2025_1_12-35

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