A model of ideological struggle

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model of ideological competition, capturing how ideologies spread, convert, and interact within a variable population, and introduces a tension scale index to measure ideological conflicts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel general model for opinion dynamics with variable populations and multiple ideologies, including conversion mechanisms and a tension measurement scale.

Findings

Steady states depend on the number of ideologies.

Increasing ideologies leads to tension among them.

The model allows analysis of ideological dynamics over time.

Abstract

A general model for opinion formation and competition, like in ideological struggles is formulated. The underlying set is a closed one, like a country but in which the population size is variable in time. Several ideologies compete to increase their number of adepts. Such followers can be either converted from one ideology to another or become followers of an ideology though being previously ideologically-free. A reverse process is also allowed. We consider two kinds of conversion: unitary conversion, e.g. by means of mass communication tools, or binary conversion, e.g. by means of interactions between people. It is found that the steady state,when it exists, depends on the number of ideologies. Moreover when the number of ideologies increases some tension arises between them. This tension can change in the course of time. We propose to measure the ideology tensions through an appropriately defined scale index.