Abstract
By viewing political and social corruption through the lens of the control theory of complex systems, this paper will provide some insight into the effects of corruption and outside control on incentives which direct the formation and evolution of social networks, and the intrinsic hierarchies which they encode. This paper proposes and tests the hypothesis that changes in the rate of competition among nodes to raise their control capacity, incentivized by the anticipation of payment through political corruption opportunities, can be identified by changes in an indicator of the controllability of the network at points where the network undergoes a structural change. A theoretical model of control input preference is formulated which leads to a testable hypothesis about the direction of correlation between controllability of a network and the presence of corruption. Results support the hypothesis that as corruption increases, the network becomes more difficult to control as all members alter their linking strategies to ensure that they get a piece of the action. We describe this novel effect as “hierarchical congestion”, to reflect the emergent phenomenon in which individuals making effort to move themselves to the top of the controllability hierarchy increase the number of driver nodes required to fully control the network.
Highlights
In areas where the presence of corruption among public figures is high, it may be the case that new entrants into the political discussion network are willing to accept a certain degree of financial compensation in exchange for the control input required to move them around the opinion space
We have proposed a basic theoretical model of member preferences which could explain this correlation
This model is based on the idea that as corruption becomes more acceptable, nodes can rent-seek by manipulating their position in the social network so that they become more important to any control schematic
Summary
In areas where the presence of corruption among public figures is high, it may be the case that new entrants into the political discussion network are willing to accept a certain degree of financial compensation in exchange for the control input required to move them around the opinion space. If such nodes in the network have the option to choose their connections, they are incentivized by the perception of corruption to choose their position in the network carefully; so that they are maximizing their probability of being selected to drive the network to a new state by corrupting parties and receive payment in exchange for their efforts. Very recently have researchers begun to examine the potential benefits of modelling the formation of these legislative networks as endogenous processes rather than as exogenously determined structures (Battaglini et al 2019)
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