Social percolation in relations between activists and supporters

Abstract

AbstractThis article is a study of the relations between activists with a strong belief and their passive supporters. In order to achieve a fuller understanding of these relations the authors make use of bond percolation theory. The theories hold that when the size of a group's communication in a given society exceeds a critical threshold; that is, when the size of the cluster of supporters' bonds becomes practically infinite within the society by virtue of the work of activists, subsequently supporters and activists come to hold key positions in society. A graph is generated indicating the probability of activists' bonds with respect to the probability of supporters' bonds within a lattice, when the biggest cluster of supporters' bonds becomes infinite. Simulations have been undertaken, and when a case is found in which infinite clusters emerge, this value of the probability of both supporters' and activists' bonds is isolated. A graph can then be generated a graph on which to plot these values as points. After that, these results can be discussed at length and some conclusions are derived from them. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11: 51–56, 2006