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Running Head: GAME THEORY IN COVID-19 AND THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 1
GAMING THEORY IN COVID-19 AND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 6
Game Theory in COVID-19 and the US Presidential Election
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Introduction
Gaming theory is a part of the substantive theory that incorporates aspects of social interactions. This paper will illustrate how the social interaction theory, to be more specific, and the gaming theory has impacted the 2020 U.S. elections. When determining the best candidate to represent their citizens in the local, state, or federal government. In the United States, the voting system and the electoral process plays an important role. Society is made up of more than just a collection of people to include the structures and institutions such as family, government, and culture. The outbreak of COVID-19 threatened the staff that that holds the society together. This paper aims at applying the social interaction theory (gaming theory) in discussing the COVID-19 pandemic and United States Presidential elections.
COVID-19 and the 2020 Presidential Election
The 2020 elections were unlike any other election conducted before, since the coronavirus pandemic's outbreak brought about a new order of things, especially when conducting campaigns. In the process of election, each voter selects a candidate that they believe will represent their policies and beliefs that they propose to be enacted within the government. In the 2020 election; most people preferred a candidate that would look into their issues, especially the coronavirus pandemic which most people were not happy about how the pandemic was being handled. Some saw the election as the opportunity to implement the changes they desire, whereas others had faith in the existing leadership. However, several questions need to be asked to understand how the federal system and the election represents the United States citizens. Some of the questions are; will the candidates elected to represent all the concerns, beliefs, and ideas that their voters have? Can there be a single perfect candidate that can represent their ideas of every single voter? The answer to these questions is a big "no." Not all the elected candidates will match their positions to cater for all perfectly, (Galea, et al, 2020).
The needs of the citizens at the same time, not all the voters should expect to have their voices and needs met by the candidate they have elected in the United States. Elections are held after every four years where the voters are presented with an opportunity to elect the candidate they prefer to serve as the president. The 2020 election was significant to the United States citizens primarily because Donald Trump was becoming more unpopular among the voters who elected him to power in the year 2016. This can be attributed to his failure to appropriately handle the COVID-19 viruses that resulted in many deaths of Americans. It was seen that many groups of people all across the United States were working tirelessly to prevent Donald Trump's re-election. Through the endorsement and support of other candidates whom they believe would provide better leadership than they currently had. Many candidates, both from the Republican and the Democratic parties, in the presidential race, making it difficult for the voters to select the candidate they feel will most likely present their beliefs effectively. In such a case where there are many candidates to be elected into positions, the best technique to use is to decide between supporting any candidate with the high probability of presenting their needs instead of letting candidates create platforms that will enable them to gain as many votes as possible. In this case, most citizens preferred Joe Biden, who was against most of the policies that President Donald Trump was pushing. More so, Joe Biden was not satisfied with how the pandemic was being handled, which represented most Americans' view, (Martens & Schlicht, 2018).
One of the most influential and widely used techniques in identifying a winning team in sports is to "protect their lead," where the team holds their leads from the campaign time until the game is over. This technique was also applied in the 2020 presidential election on the candidate that had a strong lead and is estimated to have a high probability of winning the elections in any given election. Basing on the statistics conducted by Ipsos Synovate, it revealed that most states in the United States were "turning blue," which signifies that Biden was likely to win the presidential elections. For the voters who want to see their candidates elected, they tend to exploit the strengths of their candidate while exploiting the weaknesses of the opponent. Through this technique, the voters were able to align their views with the candidates' views while determining the candidate that they prefer less. It is important to note that it is important to note that the 2020 election and the campaign process were like nothing that had been witnessed in the history of the United States. It was a unique moment since there was fewer physical rallies and conventions as it used to be. There was less queuing by voters to elect their preferred candidates. Most of the campaigns were done virtually so to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. To Joe Biden, this was an opportunity to compete effectively with president Trump who had the government resources to campaign, basing on the gaming theory, the candidates that have the low probability of winning are supposed to give room for those that are more likely to win and offer their support to him instead of diluting their ideas, (Baker, et al, 2020).
In most cases, the voters would prefer a candidate whom they think will put their interests at heart. Many people have different opinions about the candidates. However, this was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited the physical campaigns. Therefore, there have been less opinions because the fact limited the candidates there were no much interacting in platforms whereby those that will be voting can ask question physically so that they can be answered in a way that I will be satisfactory. Through this, there are less opinions that the voters had. Some ideas seemed scattered and unreasonable from the voters' side, especially when they presented their own beliefs to obtain votes. When candidates present their own beliefs, the less trustworthy they become in the eyes of the voters. These kinds of applications are essential when it comes to the consideration of events on large scales. This is because such an incident shows that they want the presidency to sit more than they want to work in the government, and this is not possible, (Landman & Splendore, 2020).
This theory talks about since an election is like a game, it is essential that in any election however they may not have the very perfect or amount of information that is relevant in making of a decision it is at that time one should seek for an optimal solution for such kind of game. The fact that the current President was sick and was suffering from the Corona Virus, made some people want to shift the election. Still, the President refused some recommendations from his own party. This is one way in which COVID-19 had influenced the election for the U.S., (Zhou, 2018).
Conclusion
The voting process itself was significantly affected because of COVID-19. Some people opted to vote very early through the mail to avoid any physical interaction with other people due to COVID-19. This was a unique election on its own because there were no specific rules about how a person was supposed to vote, but due to the hard time that the country was facing. It was only directives that they owned the ability to vote right from their home. The mail was then cast on the ballots, and then later counted. This was seen as the slowest process, even some anticipation that the results would not be readily available.
References
Baker, S. R., Bloom, N., Davis, S. J., Kost, K. J., Sammon, M. C., & Viratyosin, T. (2020). The unprecedented stock market impact of COVID-19 (No. w26945). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Galea, S., Ettman, C. K., & Abdalla, S. M. (2020). Access to health care and the 2020 US election. The Lancet, 396(10254), 803-805.
Landman, T., & Splendore, L. D. G. (2020). Pandemic democracy: elections and COVID-19. Journal of Risk Research, 1-7.
Martens, J., & Schlicht, T. (2018). Individualism versus interactionism about social understanding. Phenomenology and the cognitive Sciences, 17(2), 245-266.
Zhou, X. (2018). Optimal transmission strategy for CPS based on Stackelberg gaming theory (Doctoral dissertation).