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A nonlinear dynamical model for the dynastic cycle. (English) Zbl 1080.91572

Summary: A three-class model of society (farmers, bandits and rulers) is considered in order to explain alternation between despotism and anarchy in ancient China. In the absence of authority, the dynamics of farmers and bandits are governed by the well-known prey-predator interactions. Rulers impose taxes on farmers and punish bandits by execution. Thus, farmers are a sort of renewable resource which is exploited both by bandits and by rulers. Assuming that the dynamics of rulers is slow compared with those of farmers and bandits, slow-fast limit cycles can be identified through a singular perturbation approach. This provides a possible explanation for the accomplishment of an endogenously generated dynastic cycle, i.e. a periodic switching of society between despotism and anarchy. Moreover, there is numerical evidence for the occurrence of a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations leading to chaotic behaviour.

MSC:

91D10 Models of societies, social and urban evolution
37N40 Dynamical systems in optimization and economics

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References:

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