To how many politicians should government be left?
Abstract
We study opinion formation processes in small social networks. In particular we show how a group’s ability for efficient decision-making depends on its size. We adopt a threshold voter model and show that there exists a characteristic size beyond which the probability of forming internal factions-and thus absence of consensus-undergoes a qualitative change. Our work is empirically motivated by an apparent correlation between the size of a decision-making group and its performance in the particular case of national governments.
- Publication:
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Physica A Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
- Pub Date:
- September 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.physa.2009.06.012
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0804.2202
- Bibcode:
- 2009PhyA..388.3939K
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Physics and Society
- E-Print:
- main text 5 pages and 4 eps figures, appendix