Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
others do . In the latter case , what is at issue is less a matter of formal political process than of communication : the more democratic networks are those in which communication is egalitarian , open , and diverse .
Figure 1 shows a random network on the right , contrasted with a network generated by preferential attachment on the left ( Barabási & Albert , 1999 ; Newman , 2005 ). Of these , we would propose , the random network is more democratic . This corresponds to an aspect often emphasized in the literature : equality of participation ( Edelsky , 2004 ). It is taken as a mark of democracy that “ no-one can choose himself , no one can invest himself with the power to rule and , therefore , no one can abrogate to himself unconditional and unlimited power ” ( Asgary , 2005 ; Walt , 2000 , p . 36 ) and that “ all have a right to participate in making the decisions that will affect us ” ( Brooks , 2012 , p . 20 ). In a preferential attachment network , communication is predominantly with and through a small number of “ hubs ”— the local warlords , bosses , autocrats , or authoritarian figures . Only a few individuals have contact with many ; the many have contact-mediated predominantly by the privileged or powerful few . In a random network , the number of contacts for each individual is much more equally distributed , with a network of communication wider and more diverse . The social network that results has the look of communication in a small American town , perhaps . In what follows we formalize the extent to which attachment in a network is preferential , with the proposal that it is networked with concentrated hubs that are less democratic .
Figure 1 . A less democratic network in terms of preferential attachment ( left ) contrasted with a more democratic communication network on the right .
We also use a second measure of democracy in communication networks . Figure 2 shows two networks that contrast only in their mean node degree . Of these , we propose , it is the higher-degree network on the right that is more democratic . Various commentators have emphasized this primary aspect of democracy in terms of freedom of expression and assembly ( Brooks ,
90