Complex Networks and Evolutionary Selection in Political Economy
20 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2021 Last revised: 14 Sep 2023
Date Written: September 13, 2023
Abstract
To build better models of large-scale socioeconomic systems, political economists are learning to adapt network analytics and evolutionary selection theories. A complex systems approach can unify these efforts with the conceptual tools to understand large systems, their macroscopic properties, and typical behaviors. This approach, which augments mechanical physics with the statistical physics of systems with many degrees of freedom, enables reinterpretations of major institutional transitions in the development of European society. Cultural evolution that balanced individual and group selection within complex social networks ignited the creative explosion that accounts for our current technological capabilities. But the current ecological crisis calls for a mechanism of evolutionary selection at the level of the entire system.
Keywords: Political Economy, Complex Systems, Institutions, Networks, Cultural Evolution
JEL Classification: A12, B15, B25, B41, B52, D85, F63, N01, N13, N15, N43, N45, P16, P37, P48, P51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation