Atlas: Evolution and Voting: How Nature Makes Us Public Spirited by John Conley

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First World Congress of the Game Theory Society (Games 2000)
July 24-28, 2000
Basque Country University and Fundacion B.B.V.
Bilbao, Spain

Organizers
Ehud Kalai, Federico Valenciano

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Evolution and Voting: How Nature Makes Us Public Spirited
by
John Conley
University of Illinois
Coauthors: Ali Toossi (University of Illinois), Myrna Wooders (University of Warwick)

Voting is the most common action by citizens in a democracy and in the US about half the citizens vote in presidential electoions on a regular basis. But most models developed up to now about voting conclude that either it is rational to vote and therefore everybody votes or it is not rational to vote and thus nobody votes. This paper seeks to develope a model that predicts an in-between mixes of actual behavior. The essential problem is why should anyone bother to vote when voting is costly and the probability that one's vote will affect the outcome is small? This paper is an effort to address this issue using an evolutionary framework.

Date received: June 7, 2000