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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 20: Focus Session: Statistical Physics of Political Systems

SOE 20.3: Talk

Thursday, March 21, 2024, 15:50–16:10, MA 001

Digital Democracy: Better than Optimal?! — •Dirk Helbing — ETH Zurich, Computational Social Science — Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Societies are complex systems. This has important implications for how societies should be managed, in particular, how democracies can be upgraded. I will illustrate our insights by means of pattern formation and self-organisation phenomena in social systems as well as applications to self-governance and self-control. Furthermore, I will discuss how collective intelligence and co-creation can be supported in ways that promote favourable systemic outcomes - outcomes that are better than optimal, i.e. better than when optimisation is applied. As an application example, I will present a field study on participatory budgeting, as it has been recently carried out in Aarau, Switzerland. Specifically, I will discuss, how voting rules can be improved to promote individual and systemic benefits, such as inclusion and fairness.

Keywords: collective intelligence; self-organization; self-governance; voting; digital democracy