For several decades, scholars have developed methods for solving optimization problems which emerge in economics, econometrics, operations research, and other disciplines. A considerable effort has been made to construct equations from which constraints can be derived, but surprisingly little...

The outcomes of the 2013 German Bundestag (federal parliament) are analyzed from the viewpoint of direct democracy. For this purpose, the party positions on 36 topical issues are compared with the results of public opinion polls, and the party and coalition indices of popularity (the average...