"Aggregation means the organization of elements of a system into patterns that tend to put highly compatible elements together and less compatible elements apart. Landscape theory predicts how aggregation will lead to alignments among actors (such as nations), whose leaders are myopic in their assessments and incremental in their actions. The predicted configurations are based upon the attempts of actors to minimize their frustration based upon their pairwise propensities to align with some actors and oppose others. These attempts lead to a local minimum in the energy landscape of the entire system. The theory is supported by the results of the alignment of seventeen European nations in the Second World War. The theory has potential for application to coalitions of business firms, political parties in parliaments, social networks, social cleavages in democracies, and organizational structures."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPolitical scientists from the United StatesPeople from ChicagoYale University alumniNational Medal of Science laureates
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Adapted from Robert Axelrod and D. Scott Bennett “A Landscape Theory of Aggregation,” British Journal of Political Science 23 (Apr. 1993): 211–33.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Axelrod
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Axelrod
44 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Axelrod →
Related Quotes
"What makes it possible for cooperation to emerge is the fact that the players might meet again. This possibility mean…"
"In fact, in the Prisoner's Dilemma, the strategy that works best depends directly on what strategy the other player i…"
"Proposition 1. If the discount parameter, w, is sufficiently high, there is no best strategy independent of the strat…"
"In addition, TIT FOR TAT was known to be a powerful competitor. In a preliminary tournament, TIT FOR TAT scored secon…"
"What accounts for TIT FOR TAT's robust success is its combination of being nice, retaliatory, forgiving, and clear. I…"
"Proposition 2. TIT FOR TAT is collectively stable if and only if, w is large enough. This critical value of w is a fu…"
"Proposition 3. Any strategy which may be the first to cooperate can be collectively stable only when w is sufficientl…"
"Proposition 4. For a nice strategy to be collectively stable, it must be provoked by the very first defection of the …"
"Proposition 5. ALL D is always collectively stable."
"The Cooperation Theory that is presented in this book is based upon an investigation of individuals who pursue their …"