Verhulst-Lotka-Volterra (VLV) model of ideological struggles (1103.5362v1)

Abstract: Let the population of e.g. a country where some opinion struggle occurs be varying in time, according to Verhulst equation. Consider next some competition between opinions such as the dynamics be described by Lotka and Volterra equations. Two kinds of influences can be used, in such a model, for describing the dynamics of an agent opinion conversion: this can occur (i) either by means of mass communication tools, under some external field influence, or (ii) by means of direct interactions between agents. It results, among other features, that change(s) in environmental conditions can prevent the extinction of populations of followers of some ideology due to different kinds of resurrection effects. The tension arising in the country population is proposed to be measured by an appropriately defined scale index.