Persistent and self-perpetuating political differences between neighbouring communities

The branch of social science known as “legacy studies” has identified the stubborn persistence of political differences, such as levels of prejudice and trust, even between geographically proximate communities and otherwise broadly similar. The theoretical focus of this literature has largely been on establishing the origin of political divergence. Afiq bin Oslan adds instead to theories explaining why such differences persist across time, focusing explicitly on how neighbouring communities with political differences can, under certain circumstances, neither influence nor be influenced by each other. Using a series of simple evolutionary games, he demonstrates that differences can persist as long as intra-community interactions are more likely than cross-community interactions. These conditions remain substantively easy to meet across various basic game designs, providing a further theoretical basis for the empirical findings of legacy studies.

bin Oslan, A. (2024). Persistent and self-perpetuating political differences between neighbouring communities. Rationality and Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10434631241232754

Veröffentlichung:   bin Oslan, A. (2024). Rationality and Society, 0(0).