Frans N Stokman
Biographic Data
| ID | 633089 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frans N Stokman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frans N |
| FAMILY NAME | Stokman |
| SIGNATURE | STOKMAN F N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Groningen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1498-5731 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 315 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Success and failure in complex collective decision making
We present the Random Exchange model, an extension of the bilateral exchange model of collective decision-making of Stokman and Van Oosten. Compared to more elementary models, the Random Exchange model generates predictions of the process leading to the outcome and enhances understanding of deadlock or difficulties in the negotiation process. After explaining its logic, the Random Exchange model is applied to collective decision-making in the int…
Predicting Paris
We examine the negotiations held under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change in Paris, December 2015. Prior to these negotiations, there was considerable uncertainty about whether an agreement would be reached, particularly given that the world’s leaders failed to do so in the 2009 negotiations held in Copenhagen. Amid this uncertainty, we applied three different methods to predict the outcomes: an expert surve…
Social Networks
Policy Networks
The Dynamics and Evolution of Social Networks
Evolution of Social Networks
Modeling the evolution of networks is central to our understanding of modern large communication systems, such as the World-Wide-Web, as well as economic and social networks.The research on social and economic networks is truly interdisciplinary and the number of modeling strategies and concepts is enormous.In this survey we present some modeling approaches, covering classical random graph models and game-theoretic models, which may be used to pr…
A social network-based approach to assessde factoindependence of regulatory agencies
This article uses a policy network perspective to assess the independence of regulatory agencies (RAs) in liberalized public utility sectors. We focus on the de facto independence of RAs from elected politicians, regulatees and other co-regulators. We go further than previous studies, which only undertook a general analysis of the de jure independence of RAs from political authorities. Specifically, we apply a social network analysis (SNA), which…
Collaborative Communities Through Coproduction
Many local councils aim to (re)connect citizens to public planning. This article presents the Collaborative Communities through Coproduction (3C) method as a way to establish cooperation between residents and professionals in improving neighborhood livabiliy. The authors describe common challenges to citizen participation and identify the dilemma of sustainable cooperation as an additional challenge for citizen participation efforts that aim to e…
Detecting and measuring crucial differences between cognitive maps
The reasoning underlying the attitude of stakeholders towards the implementation of a means can be captured in causal cognitive maps about the effects of the means on relevant goals. For acyclic cognitive maps with weighted-directed signed links we propose quantitative measures for the weight of the paths between means and goals and a measure for the total result of the means on all goals. In data concerning the cognitive maps of 94 employees abo…
Not 'Just the two of us
Many real-life social dilemmas contain third parties who cannot make decisions in the dilemma, but are affected by its outcome (receive externalities) nonetheless. Dilemmas with identical payoffs for decision-making actors may greatly vary in their externalities for third parties. If actors value the welfare of thirds, externalities will affect actors' decisions. We test behavioral predictions from three leading ideas on social preferences (altru…
Outcomes of Collective Decisions With Externalities Predicted
In collective decision making bilateral deals can increase or decrease the likelihood of finding compromises, depending on whether such deals have externalities. Positive externalities mean third actors profit from bilateral deals, whereas negative externalities mean bilateral deals hurt third actors. We develop the first model of collective decision making that takes externalities into account. The model computes the expected outcomes of the iss…
The Power of the Presidency in EU Council Decision-making
Research on the presidency of the EU shows mixed results. Although most scholars agree that the EU presidency is not able to advance its domestic interests in the European forum, Tallberg (2006) provides evidence for presidency effects. In the present paper, we empirically estimate presidency-based power in the Council of the European Union on the DEU data — a large-scale data set containing EU policy issues from various policy areas. We show tha…
The European Union Decides
European legislation affects countless aspects of daily life in modern Europe but just how does the European Union make such significant legislative decisions? How important are the formal decision-making procedures in defining decision outcomes and how important is the bargaining that takes place among the actors involved? Using a combination of detailed evidence and theoretical rigour, this volume addresses these questions and others that are c…
Strategic decision making
This paper introduces a methodology for strategic intervention in collective decision making. The methodology is based on (1) a decomposition of the problem into a few main controversial issues, (2) systematic interviews of subject area specialists to obtain a specification of the decision setting, consisting of a list of stakeholders with their capabilities, positions, and salience on each of the issues; (3) computer simulation. The computer sim…
Winners and Losers in the European Union
This special issue examines legislative decision-making in the European Union (EU). By focusing on specific examples of legislative decision-making and actors’ preferences in those situations, we aim to address questions of interest to mainstream Europeanists
Bargaining in the European Union and Shifts in Actors’ Policy Positions
Although shifts in policy positions are a fundamental feature of the European Union (EU) bargaining process they have not yet been studied systematically. This article provides evidence on the extent to which position shifts occur and tests alternative models of the bargaining process that predict such shifts. We examine a subset of the DEU data set that contains information on shifts in actors’ positions on issues raised by 28 Commission proposa…
Actor alignments in European Union decision making
What is the structure of the political space in which decision‐making actors operate in the European Union? Are there consistent alignments of actors? This article addresses these questions by examining a new data set containing information on the preferences of the Commission, the Member States and the European Parliament on 174 issues raised during talks on 70 recent Commission proposals. To a limited extent, the preference alignments can be de…
Evolution of sociology freshmen into a friendship network
In this paper we both describe and analyze the meeting process and the evolution of a friendship network among sociology freshmen in the Netherlands. We develop a theory that explains how changes in the network structure depend on one or more of four main effects: proximity, visible similarity, invisible similarity, and network opportunity. We formulate expectations with regard to what factors are important at what stages of the friendship develo…
Conflict Measures in Cooperative Exchange Models of Collective Decision-making
This study focuses on externalities of exchanges of voting positions in collective decision-making. Exchanges are represented by non-constant two-person cooperative games. It is assumed that the rate of exchange is specified by the Raiffa-Kalai-Smorodinsky solution, and a model is specified to identify the exchanges. Externality effects of these exchanges are assessed with two conflict measures we develop here. The measures assess within-group an…
Models of Collective Decision-making
Decision making often requires the application of a procedure and the exercise of power, resulting in an authoritative allocation of values
Network Exchange Theory
Preface Network Exchange Theory: Issues and Directions Actors in Relations Relations in Structures Power Relations Preface Power Relations in Exchange Networks by Markovsky, Willer and Patton The Discovery of Weak Power Exclusion and Power Preface Exclusion and Power: A Test of Four Theories of Power in Exchange Networks by Skvoretz and Willer Negotiated Exchanges Preface Negotiated Exchanges in Social Networks by Lovaglia et al. An Alternative f…
Decision context and policy effectuation
In 1988 the European Union reformed the allocation of its Structural Funds to effectuate broader participation of local and regional parties and institutions in the Member States. This might affect the corporative and sectoral oriented government structure in Ireland, which was chosen as a test case for this study, with decision issues for plan periods 1988–93 and 1994–99. In this paper we focus on the question whether actors with high effective …
Dynamic Modeling of Policy Networks in Amsterdam
This article evaluates two competing dynamic policy-network models and one static network model by applying them to local politics in Amsterdam. In the dynamic models an influence relation results from the acceptance of an influence request. The first model, Control Maximization, represents the view that politics are primarily power driven, and the second, Policy Maximization, policy driven. In the static model (the Two-Stage), network relations …
Parameters in collective decision making models
Simulation models for collective decision making are based on theoretical and empirical insight in the decision making process, but still contain a number of parameters of which the values are determined ad hoc. For the dynamic access model, some of such parameters are discussed, and it is proposed to extend the utility functions with a random term of which the variance also is an unknown parameter. These parameters can be estimated by fitting mo…
Concluding remarks
Actor alignments in European Union decision making
What is the structure of the political space in which decision‐making actors operate in the European Union? Are there consistent alignments of actors? This article addresses these questions by examining a new data set containing information on the preferences of the Commission, the Member States and the European Parliament on 174 issues raised during talks on 70 recent Commission proposals. To a limited extent, the preference alignments can be de…
The Power of the Presidency in EU Council Decision-making
Research on the presidency of the EU shows mixed results. Although most scholars agree that the EU presidency is not able to advance its domestic interests in the European forum, Tallberg (2006) provides evidence for presidency effects. In the present paper, we empirically estimate presidency-based power in the Council of the European Union on the DEU data — a large-scale data set containing EU policy issues from various policy areas. We show tha…
Is politics power or policy oriented? A comparative analysis of dynamic access models in policy networks
We will show that these base models and some intermediate ones result in fundamentally different network structures and predicted outcomes. Moreover, we will show that the policy driven models do fundamentally better than the power driven models. In policy networks actors use access relations to influence preferences of other actors. Establishment and shifts of access relations and their consequences for outcomes of decisions are the main focal p…
Evolution of sociology freshmen into a friendship network
In this paper we both describe and analyze the meeting process and the evolution of a friendship network among sociology freshmen in the Netherlands. We develop a theory that explains how changes in the network structure depend on one or more of four main effects: proximity, visible similarity, invisible similarity, and network opportunity. We formulate expectations with regard to what factors are important at what stages of the friendship develo…
Winners and Losers in the European Union
This special issue examines legislative decision-making in the European Union (EU). By focusing on specific examples of legislative decision-making and actors’ preferences in those situations, we aim to address questions of interest to mainstream Europeanists
Dynamic Modeling of Policy Networks in Amsterdam
This article evaluates two competing dynamic policy-network models and one static network model by applying them to local politics in Amsterdam. In the dynamic models an influence relation results from the acceptance of an influence request. The first model, Control Maximization, represents the view that politics are primarily power driven, and the second, Policy Maximization, policy driven. In the static model (the Two-Stage), network relations …
A social network-based approach to assessde factoindependence of regulatory agencies
This article uses a policy network perspective to assess the independence of regulatory agencies (RAs) in liberalized public utility sectors. We focus on the de facto independence of RAs from elected politicians, regulatees and other co-regulators. We go further than previous studies, which only undertook a general analysis of the de jure independence of RAs from political authorities. Specifically, we apply a social network analysis (SNA), which…
Bargaining in the European Union and Shifts in Actors’ Policy Positions
Although shifts in policy positions are a fundamental feature of the European Union (EU) bargaining process they have not yet been studied systematically. This article provides evidence on the extent to which position shifts occur and tests alternative models of the bargaining process that predict such shifts. We examine a subset of the DEU data set that contains information on shifts in actors’ positions on issues raised by 28 Commission proposa…
The emergence of groups in the evolution of friendship networks
Friendship networks usually show a certain degree of segmentation: subgroups of friends. The explanation of the emergence of such groups from initially dyadic pair friendships is a difficult but important problem. In this paper we attempt to provide a first contribution to the explanation of subgroup formation in friendship networks by using the LS set as a definition for a friendship group. We construct a dynamic individual oriented model of fri…
Collaborative Communities Through Coproduction
Many local councils aim to (re)connect citizens to public planning. This article presents the Collaborative Communities through Coproduction (3C) method as a way to establish cooperation between residents and professionals in improving neighborhood livabiliy. The authors describe common challenges to citizen participation and identify the dilemma of sustainable cooperation as an additional challenge for citizen participation efforts that aim to e…
Outcomes of Collective Decisions With Externalities Predicted
In collective decision making bilateral deals can increase or decrease the likelihood of finding compromises, depending on whether such deals have externalities. Positive externalities mean third actors profit from bilateral deals, whereas negative externalities mean bilateral deals hurt third actors. We develop the first model of collective decision making that takes externalities into account. The model computes the expected outcomes of the iss…
Predicting Paris
We examine the negotiations held under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change in Paris, December 2015. Prior to these negotiations, there was considerable uncertainty about whether an agreement would be reached, particularly given that the world’s leaders failed to do so in the 2009 negotiations held in Copenhagen. Amid this uncertainty, we applied three different methods to predict the outcomes: an expert surve…
Models of Collective Decision-making
Decision making often requires the application of a procedure and the exercise of power, resulting in an authoritative allocation of values
Decision context and policy effectuation
In 1988 the European Union reformed the allocation of its Structural Funds to effectuate broader participation of local and regional parties and institutions in the Member States. This might affect the corporative and sectoral oriented government structure in Ireland, which was chosen as a test case for this study, with decision issues for plan periods 1988–93 and 1994–99. In this paper we focus on the question whether actors with high effective …
Strategic control and interests, its effects on decision outcomes
Application of the model to artificial data shows that actors with strong preferences in the center have more possibilities to realize good outcomes than other actors. On the basis of an empirical application it is shown that a Nash equilibrium does not always arise after a large number of iterations unless actors have learning capabilities or are severely restricted in their strategic behavior. In political systems and large organizations, ultim…
Detecting and measuring crucial differences between cognitive maps
The reasoning underlying the attitude of stakeholders towards the implementation of a means can be captured in causal cognitive maps about the effects of the means on relevant goals. For acyclic cognitive maps with weighted-directed signed links we propose quantitative measures for the weight of the paths between means and goals and a measure for the total result of the means on all goals. In data concerning the cognitive maps of 94 employees abo…
Conflict Measures in Cooperative Exchange Models of Collective Decision-making
This study focuses on externalities of exchanges of voting positions in collective decision-making. Exchanges are represented by non-constant two-person cooperative games. It is assumed that the rate of exchange is specified by the Raiffa-Kalai-Smorodinsky solution, and a model is specified to identify the exchanges. Externality effects of these exchanges are assessed with two conflict measures we develop here. The measures assess within-group an…
Not 'Just the two of us
Many real-life social dilemmas contain third parties who cannot make decisions in the dilemma, but are affected by its outcome (receive externalities) nonetheless. Dilemmas with identical payoffs for decision-making actors may greatly vary in their externalities for third parties. If actors value the welfare of thirds, externalities will affect actors' decisions. We test behavioral predictions from three leading ideas on social preferences (altru…
Concluding remarks
Modeling Conflict and Exchange in Collective Decision Making
Modélisation de conflits et d'échanges dans la prise de décisions collectives. Deux modèles dynamiques de prise de décisions collectives sont présentés et illustrés par un exemple simple. Une présentation et une application plus élaborées concernant la Communauté européenne peuvent être trouvées dans Bueno de Mesquita et Stokman (1994). Les deux modèles reflètent deux approches alternatives de la prise collective de décision et de la politique. L…
Corporate-governmental networks in the Netherlands
Extensions of triad counts to networks with different subsets of points and testing underlying random graph distributions
Modeling Conflict and Exchange in Collective Decision Making
Modélisation de conflits et d'échanges dans la prise de décisions collectives. Deux modèles dynamiques de prise de décisions collectives sont présentés et illustrés par un exemple simple. Une présentation et une application plus élaborées concernant la Communauté européenne peuvent être trouvées dans Bueno de Mesquita et Stokman (1994). Les deux modèles reflètent deux approches alternatives de la prise collective de décision et de la politique. L…
Strategic control and interests, its effects on decision outcomes
Application of the model to artificial data shows that actors with strong preferences in the center have more possibilities to realize good outcomes than other actors. On the basis of an empirical application it is shown that a Nash equilibrium does not always arise after a large number of iterations unless actors have learning capabilities or are severely restricted in their strategic behavior. In political systems and large organizations, ultim…
Concluding remarks
Is politics power or policy oriented? A comparative analysis of dynamic access models in policy networks
We will show that these base models and some intermediate ones result in fundamentally different network structures and predicted outcomes. Moreover, we will show that the policy driven models do fundamentally better than the power driven models. In policy networks actors use access relations to influence preferences of other actors. Establishment and shifts of access relations and their consequences for outcomes of decisions are the main focal p…
The emergence of groups in the evolution of friendship networks
Friendship networks usually show a certain degree of segmentation: subgroups of friends. The explanation of the emergence of such groups from initially dyadic pair friendships is a difficult but important problem. In this paper we attempt to provide a first contribution to the explanation of subgroup formation in friendship networks by using the LS set as a definition for a friendship group. We construct a dynamic individual oriented model of fri…
Parameters in collective decision making models
Simulation models for collective decision making are based on theoretical and empirical insight in the decision making process, but still contain a number of parameters of which the values are determined ad hoc. For the dynamic access model, some of such parameters are discussed, and it is proposed to extend the utility functions with a random term of which the variance also is an unknown parameter. These parameters can be estimated by fitting mo…
Dynamic Modeling of Policy Networks in Amsterdam
This article evaluates two competing dynamic policy-network models and one static network model by applying them to local politics in Amsterdam. In the dynamic models an influence relation results from the acceptance of an influence request. The first model, Control Maximization, represents the view that politics are primarily power driven, and the second, Policy Maximization, policy driven. In the static model (the Two-Stage), network relations …
Decision context and policy effectuation
In 1988 the European Union reformed the allocation of its Structural Funds to effectuate broader participation of local and regional parties and institutions in the Member States. This might affect the corporative and sectoral oriented government structure in Ireland, which was chosen as a test case for this study, with decision issues for plan periods 1988–93 and 1994–99. In this paper we focus on the question whether actors with high effective …
Network Exchange Theory
Preface Network Exchange Theory: Issues and Directions Actors in Relations Relations in Structures Power Relations Preface Power Relations in Exchange Networks by Markovsky, Willer and Patton The Discovery of Weak Power Exclusion and Power Preface Exclusion and Power: A Test of Four Theories of Power in Exchange Networks by Skvoretz and Willer Negotiated Exchanges Preface Negotiated Exchanges in Social Networks by Lovaglia et al. An Alternative f…
Evolution of sociology freshmen into a friendship network
In this paper we both describe and analyze the meeting process and the evolution of a friendship network among sociology freshmen in the Netherlands. We develop a theory that explains how changes in the network structure depend on one or more of four main effects: proximity, visible similarity, invisible similarity, and network opportunity. We formulate expectations with regard to what factors are important at what stages of the friendship develo…
Conflict Measures in Cooperative Exchange Models of Collective Decision-making
This study focuses on externalities of exchanges of voting positions in collective decision-making. Exchanges are represented by non-constant two-person cooperative games. It is assumed that the rate of exchange is specified by the Raiffa-Kalai-Smorodinsky solution, and a model is specified to identify the exchanges. Externality effects of these exchanges are assessed with two conflict measures we develop here. The measures assess within-group an…
Models of Collective Decision-making
Decision making often requires the application of a procedure and the exercise of power, resulting in an authoritative allocation of values
Strategic decision making
This paper introduces a methodology for strategic intervention in collective decision making. The methodology is based on (1) a decomposition of the problem into a few main controversial issues, (2) systematic interviews of subject area specialists to obtain a specification of the decision setting, consisting of a list of stakeholders with their capabilities, positions, and salience on each of the issues; (3) computer simulation. The computer sim…
Winners and Losers in the European Union
This special issue examines legislative decision-making in the European Union (EU). By focusing on specific examples of legislative decision-making and actors’ preferences in those situations, we aim to address questions of interest to mainstream Europeanists
Bargaining in the European Union and Shifts in Actors’ Policy Positions
Although shifts in policy positions are a fundamental feature of the European Union (EU) bargaining process they have not yet been studied systematically. This article provides evidence on the extent to which position shifts occur and tests alternative models of the bargaining process that predict such shifts. We examine a subset of the DEU data set that contains information on shifts in actors’ positions on issues raised by 28 Commission proposa…
Actor alignments in European Union decision making
What is the structure of the political space in which decision‐making actors operate in the European Union? Are there consistent alignments of actors? This article addresses these questions by examining a new data set containing information on the preferences of the Commission, the Member States and the European Parliament on 174 issues raised during talks on 70 recent Commission proposals. To a limited extent, the preference alignments can be de…
The European Union Decides
European legislation affects countless aspects of daily life in modern Europe but just how does the European Union make such significant legislative decisions? How important are the formal decision-making procedures in defining decision outcomes and how important is the bargaining that takes place among the actors involved? Using a combination of detailed evidence and theoretical rigour, this volume addresses these questions and others that are c…
The Power of the Presidency in EU Council Decision-making
Research on the presidency of the EU shows mixed results. Although most scholars agree that the EU presidency is not able to advance its domestic interests in the European forum, Tallberg (2006) provides evidence for presidency effects. In the present paper, we empirically estimate presidency-based power in the Council of the European Union on the DEU data — a large-scale data set containing EU policy issues from various policy areas. We show tha…
Outcomes of Collective Decisions With Externalities Predicted
In collective decision making bilateral deals can increase or decrease the likelihood of finding compromises, depending on whether such deals have externalities. Positive externalities mean third actors profit from bilateral deals, whereas negative externalities mean bilateral deals hurt third actors. We develop the first model of collective decision making that takes externalities into account. The model computes the expected outcomes of the iss…
Not 'Just the two of us
Many real-life social dilemmas contain third parties who cannot make decisions in the dilemma, but are affected by its outcome (receive externalities) nonetheless. Dilemmas with identical payoffs for decision-making actors may greatly vary in their externalities for third parties. If actors value the welfare of thirds, externalities will affect actors' decisions. We test behavioral predictions from three leading ideas on social preferences (altru…
Collaborative Communities Through Coproduction
Many local councils aim to (re)connect citizens to public planning. This article presents the Collaborative Communities through Coproduction (3C) method as a way to establish cooperation between residents and professionals in improving neighborhood livabiliy. The authors describe common challenges to citizen participation and identify the dilemma of sustainable cooperation as an additional challenge for citizen participation efforts that aim to e…
Detecting and measuring crucial differences between cognitive maps
The reasoning underlying the attitude of stakeholders towards the implementation of a means can be captured in causal cognitive maps about the effects of the means on relevant goals. For acyclic cognitive maps with weighted-directed signed links we propose quantitative measures for the weight of the paths between means and goals and a measure for the total result of the means on all goals. In data concerning the cognitive maps of 94 employees abo…
The Dynamics and Evolution of Social Networks
Computer Science (18 works) · Economics (18 works) · Political science (14 works) · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence (11 works) · European Union Policy and Governance (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Microeconomics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Mathematics (7 works)