Iconoclast economist Jason Potts (RMIT) and colleagues propose “a history-friendly approach to evolutionary socio-economic dynamics based around competition between five ‘utopias,’ ” capitalism, socialism, civil liberty, nature, and nationalism which people in a model variously support. The authors use this “to analyse certain aspects of socio-economic and political change in the US from the 1960s–present.”

And if you are curious about their conclusions, “the reader can replicate all simulation results presented in this paper by using the computer programme provided in the supplementary material. At least you can, if you have institutional access to the new issue of the Journal of Evolutionary Economics, or will pay the  €34.95 publisher Elsevier demands to read.