NetLogo Models Library:
Sample Models/Social Science

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Voting

Run Voting in your browser
uses NetLogo 4.0.3
requires Java 1.4.1+
(system requirements)

Note: If you download the NetLogo application, every model in the Models Library (besides the Community Models) is included. If you have trouble running this model in your browser, you may wish to download the application instead.

WHAT IS IT?

This model is a simple cellular automaton that simulates voting distribution by having each patch take a "vote" of its eight surrounding neighbors, then perhaps change its own vote according to the outcome.

HOW TO USE IT

Click the SETUP button to create an approximately equal but random distribution of blue and green patches. Click GO to run the simulation.

When both switches are off, the central patch changes its color to match the majority vote, but if there is a 4-4 tie, then it does not change.

If the CHANGE-VOTE-IF-TIED? switch is on, then in the case of a tie, the central patch will always change its vote.

If the AWARD-CLOSE-CALLS-TO-LOSER? switch is on, then if the result is 5-3, the central patch votes with the losing side instead of the winning side.

THINGS TO NOTICE

Watch how any setup quickly settles to a static state when both switches are off.

Watch what happens when only the CHANGE-VOTE-IF-TIED? switch is on. How is the result different?

Watch what happens when only the AWARD-CLOSE-CALLS-TO-LOSER? switch is on. How is the result different?

What happens when both switches are on?

EXTENDING THE MODEL

Try other voting rules.

Start with a nonrandom green-and-blue pattern. For example, one could make half of the world blue and half green.

Can you enhance the model to incorporate multiple colors and multiple votes? One might interpret shades of color to represent the degree of a patch's opinion about an issue: strongly against, against, neutral, etc. Each patch could have more than two choices and weighted votes: blue patches' vote could count twice, etc.

RELATED MODELS

Ising (a physics model, but the rules are very similar)

CREDITS AND REFERENCES

This model is described in Rudy Rucker's "Artificial Life Lab", published in 1993 by Waite Group Press.

To refer to this model in academic publications, please use: Wilensky, U. (1998). NetLogo Voting model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Voting. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

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NetLogo Models Library:Sample Models/Social Science

Voting

NetLogo Models Library:
Sample Models/Social Science