Agent-Based Modeling in Political Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Qiu ◽  
Riyang Phang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Agent Based Modeling ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political systems involve citizens, voters, politicians, parties, legislatures, and governments. These political actors interact with each other and dynamically alter their strategies according to the results of their interactions. A major challenge in political science is to understand the dynamic interactions between political actors and extrapolate from the process of individual political decision making to collective outcomes. Agent-based modeling (ABM) offers a means to comprehend and theorize the nonlinear, recursive, and interactive political process. It views political systems as complex, self-organizing, self-reproducing, and adaptive systems consisting of large numbers of heterogeneous agents that follow a set of rules governing their interactions. It allows the specification of agent properties and rules governing agent interactions in a simulation to observe how micro-level processes generate macro-level phenomena. It forces researchers to make assumptions surrounding a theory explicit, facilitates the discovery of extensions and boundary conditions of the modeled theory through what-if computational experiments, and helps researchers understand dynamic processes in the real-world. ABM models have been built to address critical questions in political decision making, including why voter turnouts remain high, how party coalitions form, how voters’ knowledge and emotion affect election outcomes, and how political attitudes change through a campaign. These models illustrate the use of ABM in explicating assumptions and rules of theoretical frameworks, simulating repeated execution of these rules, and revealing emergent patterns and their boundary conditions. While ABM has limitations in external validity and robustness, it provides political scientists a bottom-up approach to study a complex system by clearly defining the behavior of various actors and generate theoretical insights on political phenomena.

Political Agenda Setting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
News Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political agenda setting is the part of agenda-setting research that refers to the influence of the media agenda on the agenda of political actors. More precisely, the central question of political agenda-setting research is whether political actors adopt the issue agenda of the news media in various aspects ranging from communicating about issues that are prominently discussed in the news media to prioritizing issues from the news media agenda in political decision making. Although such effects have been studied under different labels (agenda building, policy agenda setting) for several decades, research in this field has recently increased significantly based on a new theoretical model introducing the term political agenda setting. Studies based on that model usually find effects of media coverage on the attention political actors pay to various issues, but at the same time point to a number of contingent conditions. First, as found in research on public agenda setting, there is an influence of characteristics of news media (e.g., television news vs. print media) and issues (e.g., obtrusive vs. unobtrusive issues). Second, there is an influence of characteristics of the political context (e.g., government vs. oppositional parties) and characteristics of individual politicians (e.g., generalists vs. specialists). Third, the findings of studies on the political agenda-setting effect differ, depending on which aspects of the political agenda are under examination (e.g., social media messages vs. political decision making).

The voting rights and political culture in North Macedonia and Albania

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-104
Author(s):  
Muaz Agushi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Competitive System ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political culture is a set of attitudes and practices of people that shape their political behaviour. It includes moral judgments, political myths, beliefs, and ideas about what makes a good society while language of politics is the way of using language and words in the political arena. Words are the “currency” of power in elections. Voter turnout is an indicator of the level of interest and civic participation in political decision making, competitive party offerings, and civic trust in political actors. Extensive participation, when it comes to a competitive system, significantly increases the responsibility of political actors for civic demands and concerns. The aim of the article is to analyze the political culture and electoral behaviour in North Macedonia and Albania. The author makes conclusion based on the analysis presented in the article, that the process of applying democracy in these countries would face extraordinary challenges, caused by the lack of democratic traditions, as well as by established values and attitudes unfavorable for the democracy development. Important aspects of the political culture includes mutual respect, contra voting, the constant and productive political dialogue, political and parliamentary collaboration, stable institutions instead of strong leaders, high level of participation in elections, and expanding the political decision-making area. All of these aspects are considered to be a fragile occurrence in all countries of Southeastern Europe and especially in Albania and North Macedonia.

scholarly journals Political Decision Making in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Germany from the Perspective of Risk Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Frank Daumann ◽  
Florian Follert ◽  
Werner Gleißner ◽  
Endre Kamarás ◽  
Chantal Naumann
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Simulation Techniques ◽  
Political Decision Making

The COVID-19 pandemic is permanently changing modern social and economic coexistence. Most governments have declared infection control to be their top priority while citizens face great restrictions on their civil rights. A pandemic is an exemplary scenario in which political actors must decide about future, and thus uncertain, events. This paper tries to present a tool well established in the field of entrepreneurial and management decision making which could also be a first benchmark for political decisions. Our approach builds on the standard epidemiological SEIR model in combination with simulation techniques used in risk management. By our case study we want to demonstrate the opportunities that risk management techniques, especially risk analyses using Monte Carlo simulation, can provide to policy makers in general, and in a public health crisis in particular. Hence, our case study can be used as a framework for political decision making under incomplete information and uncertainty. Overall, we want to point out that a health policy that aims to provide comprehensive protection against infection should also be based on economic criteria. This is without prejudice to the integration of ethical considerations in the final political decision.

scholarly journals Definice, příčiny a důsledky kumulace mandátů zákonodárci

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 141-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukáš Hájek
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Scholarly Discussion ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Decision Making

The article deals with various aspects of multiple-office holding. Although the phenomenon is especially influential in connection with legislators, the text offers a critical synthesis of recent findings on multiple-office holding on any level of political decision-making, thus providing a general framework for scholarly discussion and further research. The paper first provides a definition of the concept of multiple-office holding, which has been heretofore lacking in the Czech context. Causes of multiple-office holding are then delineated and divided into the three categories of historical reverberations, systemic elements and individual incentives. Both the positive and negative impacts on a political system are discussed as well. Next, three approaches (direct, indirect, and autoregulatory) of dealing with the practice of multiple-office holding, which are employed by particular political systems, are distinguished. Then, the role of a multiple-office holding in the Czech political system is depicted. The final part of the paper discusses a specific controversy linked to the phenomenon and criticises the lack of proper debates and scientific analyses on the practice.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence Research and Its Contributions to the European Union’s Political Governance: Comparative Study between Member States

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
João Reis ◽  
Paula Santo ◽  
Nuno Melão
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Political Decision Making

In the last six decades, many advances have been made in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Bearing in mind that AI technologies are influencing societies and political systems differently, it can be useful to understand what are the common issues between similar states in the European Union and how these political systems can collaborate with each other, seeking synergies, finding opportunities and saving costs. Therefore, we carried out an exploratory research among similar states of the European Union, in terms of scientific research in areas of AI technologies, namely: Portugal, Greece, Austria, Belgium and Sweden. A key finding of this research is that intelligent decision support systems (IDSS) are essential for the political decision-making process, since politics normally deals with complex and multifaceted decisions, which involve trade-offs between different stakeholders. As public health is becoming increasingly relevant in the field of the European Union, the IDSSs can provide relevant contributions, as it may allow sharing critical information and assist in the political decision-making process, especially in response to crisis situations.

Wegvoeringen en weggevoerden tijdens de meidagen van 1940

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Risky Business ◽  
Political Decision Making

Met dit boek levert Frank Seberechts een nagenoeg volledige studie af van een van de minder fraai kanten van de Belgische samenleving in 1940: de administratieve arrestatie en de wegvoering naar Frankrijk van enkele duizenden personen (de ‘verdachten’), Belgen of in België verblijvende vreemdelingen. De extreem-rechtse en pro-Duitse arrestanten hebben na hun vrijlating dit feit politiek in hun voordeel uitgebaat, waardoor volledig in de schaduw kwam te staan dat de overgrote meerderheid van de weggevoerden joodse mensen waren die in de jaren voor de oorlog naar België waren gevlucht. Dat het beeld van de wegvoeringen niet volledig is, is grotendeels te wijten aan het feit dat de meeste archieven die hierop betrekking hebben tijdens de meidagen van 1940 vernietigd werden. Met name de politieke besluitvorming over de wegvoeringen vertoont nog steeds schemerzones, zodat het vastleggen van verantwoordelijkheden ook vandaag nog een gewaagde onderneming is.________Deportations and the deported during the Maydays in 1940 By means of this book Frank Seberechts provides an almost complete study of one of the less admirable sides of Belgian society in 1940: the administrative arrest and the deportation to France of some thousands of people (‘the suspects’), Belgians or foreigners residing in Belgium. The extreme-right and pro-German detainees politically exploited this fact after they had been freed, but this completely overshadowed the point that the large majority of the deported people were Jews who had fled to Belgium during the years preceding the war. This incomplete portrayal of the deportations is mainly due to the fact that most of the archives relating to the events had been destroyed during the Maydays of 1940. The history of the political decision-making about the deportations in particular still shows many grey areas and it is therefore still a risky business even today to determine which people should be held accountable.

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