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Accidental politicians: How randomly selected legislators can improve parliament efficiency

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  • Pluchino, Alessandro
  • Garofalo, Cesare
  • Rapisarda, Andrea
  • Spagano, Salvatore
  • Caserta, Maurizio

Abstract

We study a prototypical model of a Parliament with two Parties or two Political Coalitions and we show how the introduction of a variable percentage of randomly selected independent legislators can increase the global efficiency of a Legislature, in terms of both the number of laws passed and the average social welfare obtained. We also analytically find an “efficiency golden rule” which allows to fix the optimal number of legislators to be selected at random after that regular elections have established the relative proportion of the two Parties or Coalitions. These results are in line with both the ancient Greek democratic system and the recent discovery that the adoption of random strategies can improve the efficiency of hierarchical organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Pluchino, Alessandro & Garofalo, Cesare & Rapisarda, Andrea & Spagano, Salvatore & Caserta, Maurizio, 2011. "Accidental politicians: How randomly selected legislators can improve parliament efficiency," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(21), pages 3944-3954.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:390:y:2011:i:21:p:3944-3954
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2011.06.028
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Ronald H. Coase, 2000. "The new institutional economics," Chapters, in: Claude Ménard (ed.), Institutions, Contracts and Organizations, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Pluchino, Alessandro & Rapisarda, Andrea & Garofalo, Cesare, 2010. "The Peter principle revisited: A computational study," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(3), pages 467-472.
    4. Klimek, Peter & Hanel, Rudolf & Thurner, Stefan, 2009. "To how many politicians should government be left?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(18), pages 3939-3947.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Biondo, A.E. & Pluchino, A. & Rapisarda, A., 2018. "Modeling surveys effects in political competitions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 503(C), pages 714-726.
    2. Alessandro Pluchino & Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Andrea Rapisarda, 2018. "Talent Versus Luck: The Role Of Randomness In Success And Failure," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03n04), pages 1-31, May.
    3. Inturri, Giuseppe & Le Pira, Michela & Giuffrida, Nadia & Ignaccolo, Matteo & Pluchino, Alessandro & Rapisarda, Andrea & D'Angelo, Riccardo, 2019. "Multi-agent simulation for planning and designing new shared mobility services," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 34-44.
    4. Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Alessandro Pluchino & Andrea Rapisarda & Dirk Helbing, 2013. "Are Random Trading Strategies More Successful than Technical Ones?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-13, July.
    5. A. E. Biondo & A. Pluchino & A. Rapisarda & D. Helbing, 2013. "Are random trading strategies more successful than technical ones?," Papers 1303.4351, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2013.
    6. Farias, B. & Rapôso, O. & Penna, T.J.P. & Girardi, D., 2021. "The Peter Principle and learning: A safer way to promote workers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 576(C).
    7. Nadia Giuffrida & Michela Le Pira & Giuseppe Inturri & Matteo Ignaccolo & Giovanni Calabrò & Blochin Cuius & Riccardo D’Angelo & Alessandro Pluchino, 2020. "On-Demand Flexible Transit in Fast-Growing Cities: The Case of Dubai," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, May.
    8. Chengwei Liu, 2021. "In luck we trust: Capturing the diversity bonus through random selection," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 10(2), pages 85-91, June.
    9. Sobkowicz, Pawel, 2016. "Agent based model of effects of task allocation strategies in flat organizations," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 458(C), pages 17-30.
    10. Caserta, Maurizio & Pluchino, Alessandro & Rapisarda, Andrea & Spagano, Salvatore, 2021. "Why lot? How sortition could help representative democracy," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 565(C).
    11. Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Alfio Giarlotta & Alessandro Pluchino & Andrea Rapisarda, 2016. "Perfect Information vs Random Investigation: Safety Guidelines for a Consumer in the Jungle of Product Differentiation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, January.

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