Modeling society with a responsible elite

TL;DR

This paper uses the ViSE model to analyze how a responsible elite influences societal stability, showing that such elites can prevent societal losses and promote cooperation, with dynamics depending on social attitudes and elite behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a model demonstrating that responsible elites stabilize society and counteract the 'pit of losses' paradox, highlighting the importance of elite behavior and societal structure.

Findings

Responsible elites stabilize society and eliminate the 'pit of losses' paradox.

Society benefits similarly from responsible elites and prosocial groups of the same size.

Emergence of new responsible elites can restore stability after elite transformation.

Abstract

Within the framework of the ViSE (Voting in a Stochastic Environment) model, we examine the dynamics in a society, part of which can be considered an elite. The model allows us to analyze the influence of social attitudes, such as collectivism, individualism, altruism on the well-being of agents. The dynamics is determined by collective decisions and changes in the structure of society, in particular, by the formation of groups of cooperating agents. It is found that the presence of a "responsible elite", combining the support of other agents with limited concern for their own benefit, stabilizes society and eliminates the "pit of losses" paradox. The benefit to society from having a responsible elite is comparable to that from having a prosocial group of the same size. If the elite radically increases the weight of the group component in its combined voting strategy, then its incomes rise sharply, while society's incomes decline. If, in response to the selfish transformation of the elite, a new responsible elite emerges, proportionally larger than the previous one, then society will stabilize again, and the old elite will lose its dominant position. This process can be repeated as long as the size of society allows the formation of new responsible elites of the required size.