Voluntary Economic Cooperation in Policy Based Management

Abstract Systems with decentralized authority are sometimes,considered to be ‘unmanaged’ or even unman- ageable. Promise theory is an approach to policy that assumes complete,decentralization of authority. Cooperation between agents or systems is entirely voluntary, so why would agents cooperate in forming policy? By exhibiting the relationship between promise theory and game theory, we propose that there is a natural economic,incentive for cooperation in distribu ted systems with autonomous,control. The possibility of trading between,agents motivates the definit ion of a common,currency. Our results are especially applicable to the analysis of policy in a Service Oriented Architecture. We derive minimal requirements for the existence of stable Agreements between agents, with or without monetary payment.