PyVote

A large portion of political science is understanding how legislatures vote, why, and what endogenous and exogenous factors affect voting. PyVote is a package that contains classes for simulating voting is various types of legislatures, and testing how changes to the mechanisms and environments of voting affect outcomes.

The ultimate goal of PyVote is to be so flexible that models of any and all possible legislative formats could be constructed and simulated.

News

3-DEC-2008: Major updates to PyVote uploaded, and PyVote Goes to Work with "Greedy Conservative" Simulation.

20-OCT-2008: Documentation is now available for version 0.02, and will be updated as the software itself is updated. The permanent link will always be available here.

19-OCT-2008: Version 0.02 have been packaged for download. There are two major changes to the framework in this version. First, agents now attempt to maximize utility when voting, which is calculated by the distance a new policy is from their ideological ideal point. Second, bill are generated endogenously in Committee objects, and an 'agenda setter' agent is given the ability to propose bills, but must compromise within the committee on the extent the bill changes the status quo.

9-OCT-2008: This issue with the example two party simulation not running has been resolved. Please update your files to the two new featured versions.

7-OCT-2008: This very first class for PyVote has been uploaded! We are a long way from even being started, but this class includes all of the necessary functionality to simulate voting in a two-party legislature (roughly modeled after the U.S.A). I will be updating the Wiki section with some of the results.