Dictatorship from majority rule voting.

Majority rule voting in a multi-level system is studied using tools from the physics of disorder. We are not dealing with nation-wide general elections but rather with hierarchical organisations made of small committees. While in theory, for a two candidate election, the critical threshold to absolute power is , the usual existence of some local and reasonable bias makes it asymmetric, transforming a democratic system in effect to a dictatorship. The underlying dynamics of this democratic self-elimination is studied using a simulation which visualizes the full process. In addition the effect of non-voting persons (abstention, sickness, apathy) is also studied. It is found to have an additional drastic effect on the asymmetry of the threshold value to power. Some possible applications are mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]