ABSTRACT
The talk focuses on a setting in which a community wishes to identify a strongly supported proposal from a large space of alternatives, in order to change the status quo.
I will describe a deliberation process in which agents dynamically form coalitions
around proposals that they prefer over the status quo. Using this model I will show how the properties of the underlying abstract space of proposals and the ways in which agents can form coalitions affect the success of deliberation in creating consensus. We show that, as the complexity of the proposal space increases, more complex forms of coalition formation are required in order to guarantee success. Intuitively, this seems to suggest that complex deliberative spaces require more sophisticated coalition formation abilities on the side of the agents.
The model aims at providing theoretical foundations for the analysis of deliberative processes
in platforms for democratic deliberation support.
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