The Strength of Weak Ties & The 2016 Presidential Election
The notion of tie strength is especially prevalent in current events shaping this year’s presidential election. Both presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been floating around options of members to join their presidential cabinet. Leadership, especially that of an entire nation such as the United States, is a collaborative process. Both Trump and Clinton would benefit from a diverse set of cabinet members that vary across ideology relating to each party. If we look at this situation through the lens of Mark Granovetter’s theories in his famous 1973 paper, The Strength of Weak Ties, there are many interesting points to be made. For one, Donald Trump answered a question about potential female cabinet members, naming his own daughter Ivanka Trump as one of his top choices. This presents an extreme strong tie, paradoxical to Granovetter’s theory. If Trump were to choose Ivanka as one of his members, while he would likely get her undying support, he would miss out on the diverse and unique opinions of members with weak ties. This could seriously hurt Trump’s foreign and economic policy, since he has already announced many controversial issues. A weak tie would be a almost like a third-party observer – someone with different opinions who could sway Trump away from such vexed decisions.
If we look at Clinton and her thoughts about cabinet choices, strong ties are very prevalent as well, however present a different outcome. Many of Clinton’s options are those who hold very deep ties to the Democratic party and current President Obama. Clinton’s prospects make her own political opinions and policies pretty obvious to the American public. We can deduce from Obama’s actions, that Clinton will most likely follow the same formats, since her cabinet members will likely be similar people as his were. However, strong ties were not always the case in presidential nominees cabinet choice. Republican President Richard Nixon staffed his cabinet with some members who had never even worked for the Republican party in the past. Clearly, he trusted this weak tie relationship enough. From my own analysis, and taking from what we learned in class, I think it would be best for Trump and Clinton to open up their prospects for cabinet members and perhaps look at some weaker ties, rather than go-to choices. In the end, both nominees have their flaws, and some broader interpretation of policies from weak ties could help with support from more American voters.
This blog post is inspired by these two articles:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-19/clinton-s-liberal-white-house-takes-shape
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/05/politics/clinton-trump-ivanka-cabinet/