A Model of the Emergence of New Political Actors

Robert Axelrod

Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: How can new political actors may emerge from the aggregation of smaller political actors? This paper presents a simulation model that provides one answer. In its broadest perspective, the work can be seen as part of the study of emergent organization through "bottom-up" processes. In such "bottom-up" process, small units interact according to locally defined rules, and the result is emergent properties of the system such as the formation of new levels of organization. Thus the work is typical of the "Santa Fe" approach to complex adaptive systems (Stein, 1989; Fontana, 1991; Holland, 1992). The concern with increased levels of organization is also reminiscent with how biological systems managed to make the transition from single-celled organisms to multiple celled organisms (Buss, 1987), and how brains manage to function by organizing individual neurons into meaningful structures (Hebb, 1949; Minsky, 1985).

Date: 1993-11
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:93-11-068

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