A thermodynamic-like characterization of Colombia’s presidential elections in 2010, and a comparison with other Latin American countries

A thermodynamic-like characterization of Colombia’s presidential election is presented. We assume that the electoral system consists of citizens embedded in a political environment, and that this environment can be considered as an information bath characterized by the entropic parameter q (q [0,∞]). First, for q=1, the electoral outcomes of 2010 are translated into a set of probabilities (relative frequencies of the events) , with possible independent results. Then, for 0≤q<∞, the electoral system is characterized by using the thermodynamic-like method for probabilistic systems proposed in a previous article. Some general considerations of the macro-description of a probabilistic system and a comparison of presidential elections in five countries are also included.