David A. Meyer,
``The complexity of voting'',
to appear in the proceedings of the RAND Workshop on Complexity and Public Policy, Complex Systems and Policy Analysis: New Tools for a New Millennium, Arlington, VA, 27-28 September 2000.

Voting, or more generally, aggregating preferences, makes systems complex. Consequently, their dynamics can be chaotic and hence difficult to predict or control. These statements are equally true for artificial multi-agent systems as for real political systems, counterindicating unreflexive use of such tools by policy makers. Similar analysis applies to systems with a continuum of alternatives, like election campaigns, and explains the ambiguity of candidates' platforms.

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