Schedule

Private Truths, Public Lies within agent-based modeling

The title of this talk is inspired by the Timur Kuran's book entitled "Private Truths, Public Lies. The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification". During my presentation I will talk about the idea and real-life examples of Preference Falsification. Furthermore, I will propose a simple binary agent-based model, which allows to describe Preference Falsification by introducing two levels of the opinion: the public and the private one. Finally, I will discuss how Preference Falsification can help in explaining social and political dynamics.

Does greater proportionality produce a better representation of citizens’ preferences in government?

Proportional representation leads to a fairer representation of the various parties in the legislature. Given the fact that much power is concentrated in the executive, the question is whether the governments that are formed after an election better reflect citizens’ preferences under a (more) proportional system. I review research that has looked at the relative congruence between citizens’ political and ideological preferences and the government’s partisan and ideological orientation. Such research suggests that proportional representation does not produce governments that better reflect citizens’ views. I discuss the reasons why fairer legislative representation does not necessarily entail better governments.

Stability of democracies: a complex systems perspective

The idea that democracy is under threat, after being largely dormant for at least 40 years, is looming increasingly large in public discourse. Complex systems theory offers a range of powerful new tools to analyse the stability of social institutions in general, and democracy in particular. What makes a democracy stable? And which processes potentially lead to instability of a democratic system? We offer a complex systems perspective on this question, informed by areas of the mathematical, natural, and social sciences. We also offer recommendations for agents who seek reform via bottom-up influence through self-organizing networks.