Dynamics of voting strategies and public good funding

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Hauptverfasser: Engle, Jonathan, Morsky, Bryce
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Engle, Jonathan
Morsky, Bryce
author_facet Engle, Jonathan
Morsky, Bryce
contents We model an electorate voting on the funding of a public good in a two-party system in an evolutionary game theory framework. Voters adopt one of four strategies: Consensus-makers, Gridlockers, Party 1 Zealots, and Party 2 Zealots, which they may change via imitation. The public good benefits both individuals locally and those in neighbouring regions due to spillover effects. A system of differential equations governs the spatial movement of individuals and shifts in their voting strategies. Local social interactions drive strategy evolution, while migration occurs toward areas of higher utility, which is a function of both social and economic factors. Our results reveal bistability and significant spatial variations. Locally, populations converge to a politically gridlocked state or a mix of consensus-makers and zealots, determining public good provisioning. We find that public good spillovers generate a free-rider effect and poorly funded regions become spatially tied to, and dependent upon, well-funded ones.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_24723
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dynamics of voting strategies and public good funding
Engle, Jonathan
Morsky, Bryce
Physics and Society
We model an electorate voting on the funding of a public good in a two-party system in an evolutionary game theory framework. Voters adopt one of four strategies: Consensus-makers, Gridlockers, Party 1 Zealots, and Party 2 Zealots, which they may change via imitation. The public good benefits both individuals locally and those in neighbouring regions due to spillover effects. A system of differential equations governs the spatial movement of individuals and shifts in their voting strategies. Local social interactions drive strategy evolution, while migration occurs toward areas of higher utility, which is a function of both social and economic factors. Our results reveal bistability and significant spatial variations. Locally, populations converge to a politically gridlocked state or a mix of consensus-makers and zealots, determining public good provisioning. We find that public good spillovers generate a free-rider effect and poorly funded regions become spatially tied to, and dependent upon, well-funded ones.
title Dynamics of voting strategies and public good funding
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.24723