Carry the Two

Mathematics & Political Coalitions

Oct 9, 2024

Join Andrea Mock, a data scientist at Aura, Gunnar Carlsson, a former Stanford professor, Samin Aref, a university assistant professor, and Zachary Neal, a psychology professor as they explore the intersection of mathematics and political coalitions. They discuss how simplicial complexes can model coalition stability, the nuances of cluster analysis in the U.S. House, and uncover hidden coalitions through bill co-sponsorship data. Their fascinating insights reveal the complex dynamics driving political alliances amidst the current election landscape.

29:35

Creator website

Episode guests

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Mathematical frameworks, like simplicial complexes, provide insights into the stability and dynamics of political coalitions in democracy.

The identification of a hidden bipartisan coalition among U.S. legislators highlights complex interactions that challenge traditional views of partisanship.

Deep dives

Modeling Political Coalitions with Simplicial Complexes

Simplicial complexes serve as a mathematical framework to model political coalitions by representing them as interconnected structures composed of vertices and edges. In this context, a vertex can represent political agents such as parties or voters, while the edges signify potential coalitions among these agents. This approach allows researchers to analyze how different configurations or coalitions may interact, revealing insights into the stability of various political structures. By using homology theorems, the study investigates the stability of configurations, emphasizing that more stable coalitions enable greater flexibility in political dynamics.

Intro

2min

Mathematics of Political Coalitions

5min

Visualizing Political Coalitions through Simplicial Complexes

2min

Mathematics and Political Coalition Analysis

2min

Analyzing Legislative Coalitions

10min

Unveiling Political Coalitions

6min

Exploring Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Community Engagement

3min

We in the United States are deep in the middle of a major national election, and over half of the world’s population also have elections in 2024. This is why Carry the Two is going to focus on the intersection of mathematics and democracy for our new season.

In this, the third episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we speak to Andrea Mock, Gunnar Carlsson, Samin Aref, and Zachary Neal. We dig into what mathematics has to say about the stability of political coalitions, how mediators can make coalitions more stable, the ways in which Democrats and Republicans can be clustered together in the House of Representatives based on their votes, and the hidden third coalition of really successful legislators in the House that co-sponsorship data can illuminate.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Political structures and the topology of simplicial complexes

Andrea Mock & Ismar Volić

Gunnar Carlsson

The topology of politics: voting connectivity in the US House of Representatives

Pek Yee Lum, Alan Lehmann, Gurjeet Singh, Tigran Ishkhanov, Gunnar Carlsson, & Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson

Samin Aref

Zachary Neal

Identifying hidden coalitions in the US House of Representatives by optimally partitioning signed networks based on generalized balance

Samin Aref & Zachary Neal

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute