Contributions to the theory of imitative behavior: The number of political parties as determined by biological and social factors

Abstract

The theory of imitative behavior as applied tow mutually exclusive behavior patterns (N. Rashevsky,Mathematical Biology of Social Behavior, Rev. Ed., 1959; The University of Chicago Press) leads to the possibility of any numberw of different behavior patterns existing in a social group. Mutually inhibitory effects suppress the effectiveness of behavior of groups that are very small numerically. The manner in which the different biological and social parameters that enter into the theory of imitative behavior determine the number of different effective behaviors is discussed. The results are applied to the problem of what determines the number of political parties in different countries. This number is expected to increase with increasing spread of the distribution curves for the tendencies towards different behaviors, with decreasing imitation factors, and with increasing instability of psychophysical judgments of the average individuals.