A class of models with application to swarm behavior as well as many other types of complex systems is studied with an emphasis on analytic techniques and results. Special attention is given to the role played by fluctuations in determining the behavior of such systems. In particular it is suggested that such fluctuations may play an active role, and not just the usual passive one, in the organization of structure in the vicinity of a non-equilibrium phase transition. One model, that of an ant swarm, is analyzed in more detail as an illustration of these ideas
