The framework elucidates multi-level feedback loops, showing how individual choices propagate through communities to produce systemic outcomes.
Non-linear dynamics and bifurcation analysis highlight critical thresholds for intervention, offering both explanatory and predictive power.
The study demonstrates that transactional politics is not merely a micro-level ethical problem, but a systemic phenomenon capable of destabilizing democratic institutions. By formalizing the interactions between incentives, justice perception, and social norms, TDD provides a rigorous, empirically grounded, and policy-relevant model. It identifies critical thresholds and feedback loops that shape long-term democratic trajectories, emphasizing the importance of reducing monetary inducements, enhancing perceived justice, and fostering civic engagement to maintain political stability.
B. Theoretical Contributions: Integrative Model Combining Psychology, Sociology, and Mathematics
The Transactional Degradation of Democracy (TDD) framework presents a novel theoretical integration that bridges psychology, sociology, and mathematical modeling to explain complex political dynamics. Its contributions can be summarized across several dimensions:
1. Integrating Psychological Theories
TDD incorporates cognitive dissonance theory to explain how voters reconcile ethical conflicts when accepting monetary incentives.
Social exchange theory contextualizes the transactional logic of both voters and legislators, framing political transactions as cost-benefit evaluations.
By formalizing these psychological processes, TDD quantifies micro-level rationalizations and links them to measurable system outcomes.
2. Embedding Sociological Perspectives
The framework embeds labeling theory and symbolic domination, demonstrating how societal norms and power structures reinforce or constrain transactional behavior.