Confrontation of capitalism and socialism in Wikipedia networks

Abstract

We introduce the Ising Network Opinion Formation (INOF) model and apply it for the analysis of networks of 6 Wikipedia language editions. In the model, Ising spins are placed at network nodes/articles and the steady-state opinion polarization of spins is determined from the Monte Carlo iterations in which a given spin orientation is determined by in-going links from other spins. The main consideration is done for opinion confrontation between {\it capitalism, imperialism} (blue opinion) and {\it socialism, communism} (red opinion). These nodes have fixed spin/opinion orientation while other nodes achieve their steady-state opinions in the process of Monte Carlo iterations. We find that the global network opinion favors {\it socialism, communism} for all 6 editions. The model also determines the opinion preferences for world countries and political leaders, showing good agreement with heuristic expectations. We also present results for opinion competition between {\it Christianity} and {\it Islam}, and USA Democratic and Republican parties. We argue that the INOF approach can find numerous applications for directed complex networks.