Compartmental voter model

Abstract

Numerous models in opinion dynamics focus on the temporal dynamics within a single electoral unit (e.g., country). The empirical observations, on the other hand, are often made across multiple electoral units (e.g., polling stations) at a single point in time (e.g., elections). Aggregates of these observations, while quite useful in many applications, neglect the underlying heterogeneity in opinions. To address this issue we build a simple agent-based model in which all agents have fixed opinions, but are able to change their electoral units. We demonstrate that this model is able to generate rank-size distributions consistent with the empirical data.