Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Simulating the effect of nepotism on political risk taking and social unrest

  • Published:
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nepotism has been the primary influence on political behavior throughout human history. Despite the spread of democracy in the 20th century, nepotistic regimes have hardly disappeared. Nepotism heavily influences political activity throughout the developing world, Middle East, and central Asia where family ties are essential for gaining access to power, state resources, and privileges. Rebelling against such nepotistic regimes is difficult and risky. RiskTaker is an agent-based model we developed for testing the influences of various social forces on risk taking behavior, including the formulation of rebellious coalitions. We use RiskTaker to examine the influence of nepotism on the distribution of wealth and social status. Nepotism heavily skews the distribution of wealth and status, leading to the formation of opposing coalitions and exacerbating social unrest.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

References

  • Alexander RD (1974) The Evolution of Social Behavior. Ann Rev Anthr 5:325–383

    Google Scholar 

  • Axelrod R (1997) The Complexity of Cooperation: agent-based Models of Conflict and Cooperation. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Axelrod R, Cohen MD (2000) Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Battalio RC, Samuelson L, van Huyck J (2001) Optimization Incentives and Coordination Failure in Laboratory Stag Hunt Games. Econometrica 69(3):749–764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betzig L (1986), Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History. Aldine, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer JD, Lockhart B, Rodgers P (1998) Informal Social Control and Crime Management in Belfast. Brit J Sociol 49(4):570–585

    Google Scholar 

  • Carley KM, Reminga J, Kamneva N (2003) Destabilizing Terrorist Networks. North Amer Assoc Comput Soc Organ Sci

  • Carneiro RL (1998) What Happened at the Flashpoint? Conjectures on Chiefdom Formation at the Very Moment of Conception. In: Redmond EM (ed) Chiefdoms and chieftaincy in the Americas. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, pp 18–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Chagnon N (1990) Reproductive and Somatic Conflicts of Interest in the Genesis of Violence and Warfare among Tribesmen. In: Haas J (ed) The anthropology of war. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 77–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier P (2000) Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy. Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein JM (1999) Agent-based Computational Models and Generative Social Science. Complexity 4(5):41–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein JM, Axtell RL (1996) Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up. MIT Press, and the Brookings Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller G, Szayna TS (2000) The Saudi Arabian Prospective case. In: Szayna TS (ed) Identifying Potential Ethnic Conflict: Application of a Process Model RAND Corporation. Santa Monica, California, pp 239–275

  • Gurven M, Hill K, Kaplan H, Hurtado AM, Lyles R (2000) Food Transfers among Hiwi Foragers of Venezuela: Tests of Reciprocity. Human Ecology 28(2):171–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton WD (1964) The Evolution of Social Behavior. I and II. Journal of Theoretical Biology 7:1–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill K, Hurtado AM (1996) Ache Life History: The Ecology and Demography of a Foraging People. Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland JH (1998) Emergence: from Chaos to Order. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Irons W (1979) Cultural and Biological Success. In: Chagnon N, Irons W (eds) Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior. Duxbury, North Scituate, Masachussetts, pp 257–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson GR (1986) Kin Selection, Socialization, and Patriotism: An Integrating Theory. Pol Life Sci 4:127–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznar LA (2002) Evolutionary Applications of Risk Sensitivity Models to Socially Stratified Species: Comparison of Sigmoid, Concave and Linear Functions. Evol Human Behav 23(4):265–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuznar LA (2006) High Fidelity Computational Social Science in Anthropology: Prospects for Developing a Comparative Framework. Soc Sci Comput Rev 24(1):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuznar LA, Frederick WG (2003) Environmental Constraints and Sigmoid Utility: Implications for Value, Risk Sensitivity, and Social Status. Ecolog Econ 46:293–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuznar LA, Sedlmeyer RL (2005) Collective Violence in Darfur: An Agent-based Model of Pastoral Nomad/Sedentary Peasant Interaction. Mathem Anthrop Culture Theory 1(4):1–22 www.mathematicalanthropology.org.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznar LA, Sedlmeyer RL, Frederick WG (2005) Agent Based Models of Risk Sensitivity: Applications to Social Unrest, Collective Violence and Terrorism. Paper Presented at the 3rd Lake Arrowhead conference on Human Complex Systems, Lake Arrowhead California, pp 18–22

  • Kuznar LA, Toole J, Kobelja N (2005) Emergent Agents and the Simulation of Political Unrest: Application to Palestinian Political Coalitions. AGENT 2005. Chicago, Illinois

  • Kuznar LA, Frederick WG, Sedlmeyer RL (2006) The Effect of Nepotism on the Evolution of Social Inequality. In: Kuznar LA, Sanderson SK (eds), Studying Societies and Cultures: Marvin Harris's Cultural Materialism and Its Legacy, Pergamon Press

  • Lee RB (1993) The Dobe Juhoansi, 2nd Edition. Harcourt Brace, Fort Worth, Texas

  • Lustick IS (2002) PS-I: A User-Friendly Agent-Based Modeling Platform for Testing Theories of Political Identity and Political Stability. JASSS—J Artif Societ Soc Simul, 5(3):1–37 http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/5/3/7.html

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKerrow EP (2003) Understanding Why—Dissecting Radical Islamist Terrorism with Agent-Based Simulation. Los Alamos Sci 28:184–191

    Google Scholar 

  • North MJ, Macal CM, Vos JR (2004) Terrorist Simulation with NetBreaker, Swarmfest 2004. Ann Arbor, Michigan

  • Obermeyer GJ (1973) Leadership and Transition in Bedouin Society: A Case Study. In: Nelson C (ed) The Desert and the Sown: Nomads in the Wider World. Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, California, pp 159-173

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Sullivan D (2004) Complexity Science and Human Geography. Trans Instit British Geograph. 29(3):282–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker DC, Manson SM, Janssen MA, Hoffman MJ, Deadman P (2003) Multi-agent Systems for the Simulation of Land-use and Land-cove Chance: A Review. Ann Assoc Amer Geograph 93(2):314–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pianka ER (1978) Evolutionary Ecology, 2nd Edition. Harper and Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sallach DL (2003) Social Theory and Agent Architectures: Prospective Issues in Rapid-Discovery Social Science. Soc Sci Comp Rev 21(2):179–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sallach DL, Macal CM (2001) Introduction: The Simulation of Social Agents. Soc Sci Comput Rev 19(3):245–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Senechal de la Roche R (2001) Why is Collective Violence Collective? Sociol Theory 19(2):126–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suliman M (1996) The Desert versus the Oasis Syndrome. In: Bachler G, Spillman K (eds) Environmental Degradation as a Cause of War. Verlag Ruegger, Zurich, pp 145–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver R, Silverman BG, Shin H, Dubois R (2001) Modeling and Simulating Terrorist Decision-Making: A ‘Performance Moderator Function‘ Approach to Generating Virtual Opponents. 10th annual CGF (Computer Generated Forces) proceedings. SISO (Simulated Interoperability Standards Organization) and IEEE, New York

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Indiana University – Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN, 46805, USA

    Lawrence A. Kuznar & William Frederick

Authors
  1. Lawrence A. Kuznar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. William Frederick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lawrence A. Kuznar.

Additional information

This paper was tied for Best Paper, NAACSOS (North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science) Annual Conference 2005, June 26–28, Notre Dame. Robert Sedlmeyer, Department of Computer Science, Indiana University – Purdue University, Fort Wayne provided programming for the RiskTaker model.

Lawrence A. Kuznar is a professor of anthropology and director of the Decision Sciences and Theory Institute at Indiana University—Purdue University, Fort Wayne. He has conducted fieldwork among Aymara Indians in Andean Peru and the Navajo of the American southwest. His research interests include computer modeling, theories of risk taking and conflict, terrorism, social evolution, and scientific epistemology. He has authored articles in Ecological Economics (with W. Frederick), Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Mathematical Anthropology and Culture Theory and Journal of Anthropological Research, and published two books (Awatimarka Harcourt Brace, 1995 and Reclaiming a Scientific Anthropology Altamira Press, 1997) and two edited volumes.

William Frederick has served as a faculty member in the departments of mathematical sciences and the department of computer sciences at Indiana University—Purdue University, Fort Wayne since 1979. His primary interests include mathematical modeling, game theory, and genetic algorithms.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kuznar, L.A., Frederick, W. Simulating the effect of nepotism on political risk taking and social unrest. Comput Math Organiz Theor 13, 29–37 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-006-9008-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-006-9008-1

Keywords