Objective Degrees of Dependence in Social Dependence Relations

Abstract

This paper presents a way to quantify objective dependence relations between agents of a society in order to measure the degree of dependence established between them. The quantification is performed on specially defined dependence situation graphs. A way is presented to refine objective degrees of dependence into subjective ones, through the consideration of subjective aspects of the dependence relationships. The paper also shows how to measure the dependence that the society as a whole has on each agent that participates in it, and how to measure the negotiation power of each agent in such society