Democracy at the Edge of Chaos: Understanding Power-Law in Indonesian Elections
BFI Working Paper No. WPT2004
9 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2004
Date Written: September 2004
Abstract
We construct a majority cellular automata based model to explain the power-law signatures in Indonesian general election results. The understanding of second-order phase transitions between two different conditions inspires the model. The democracy is assumed as critical point between the two extreme socio-political situations of totalitarian and anarchistic social system - where democracy can fall into the twos. The model is in multi-party candidates system run for equilibrium or equilibria, and used to fit and analyze the three of democratic national elections in Indonesia, 1955, 1999, and 2004.
Keywords: Majority cellular automata, phase transitions, power-laws, elections
JEL Classification: D72
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation