Populism and Connectivism: An Analysis of the Sanders and Trump Nomination Campaigns

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of the Trump and Sanders’ campaigns for the presidential nomination of their respective parties. It studies the structure of the relationship between the campaign and its supporters through communication on each candidate’s Facebook page. While both campaigns have been termed populist, we differentiate populism from connectivism and develop an account of a connective campaign as a species of connective action. Whereas populism is predicated on a singular people, connectivity involves the acceptance and recognition of difference as a resource for political activity. Whereas populism involves a hierarchical authority relationship, connectivity is based on a reciprocal authority relationship. Finally, populism articulates an anti-establishment demand while connective campaigns demand for citizens to have the capacity for consequential engagement with political life. The empirical results demonstrate that connectivism and populism are distinct in practice and that these attributes hang together as two separate concepts. Further, we find that Trump’s campaign communications emphasize populist themes, for Sanders such themes are limited and in the shadow of connectivism.

KEYWORDS:

• campaigns
• connectivism
• populism
• social media

Notes

Representative posts from Trump’s Facebook page include message ID 153080620724_10156678234995725, message ID 153080620724_10156851000155725, message ID 153080620724_10156882124280725, and message ID 153080620724_10156960039970725. Representative posts from Sander’s Facebook page include message ID 124955570892789_972506252804379, message ID 124955570892789_974352199286451, message ID 124955570892789_1019079561480381, and message ID 124955570892789_1047051288683208.

Message ID: 124955570892789_1024143807640623.

Message ID: 124955570892789_977935538928117.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156688041040725.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156712805285725.

Message ID: 124955570892789_1025058957549108.

Message ID: 124955570892789_977619848959686.

Message ID: 124955570892789_1029216750466662.

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/790927104921767940.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156678234995725.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156942901590725.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156836399595725.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156813075250725.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156815489210725.

Message ID: 153080620724_10156815489210725.

In developing this conceptual history, we bracket the question of whether Tocqueville might actually endorse Sanders’ political program. This is due to the rather complicated engagement Tocqueville has with the idea of equality of conditions which operates quite differently in the Old World and the New World as to belie casual categorizations of contemporary policies (Wolin 2002, 125, 144, 322–23, 528–29).