9780415995450

Many people complain about the complex system used to nominate presidents. The system is hardly rational because it was never carefully planned. Because of the dissatisfaction over the idiosyncrasies of the current system, periodic calls arise to reform the presidential nomination process. But how are we to make sense of the myriad complexities in the system as well as in the calls for change?In The Imperfect Primary , political scientist Barbara Norrander explores how presidential candidates are nominated, discusses past and current proposals for reform, and examines the possibility for more practical, incremental changes to the electoral rules. Norrander reminds us to be careful what we wish for'”reforming the presidential nomination process is as complex as the current system. Through the modeling of empirical research to demonstrate how questions of biases can be systematically addressed, students can better see the advantages, disadvantages, and potential for unintended consequences in a whole host of reform proposals.

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. viii
Preface	p. ix
Happenstance and Reforms	p. 1
A Short History of Presidential Nominations	p. 6
Two Early Views: Nomination by Political Elites	p. 8
The Party Convention Eras	p. 11
The Origins of Presidential Primaries	p. 13
A Mixed System: Conventions and Primaries, 1948-1960	p. 15
Moving to a Primary-Dominated System	p. 16
The Primary-Dominated Era: 1972 and Forward	p. 22
Presidential Nomination Politics at the Dawn of the 21st Century	p. 25
Recent Nomination Contests	p. 26
The Candidates	p. 31
The (Not So) Invisible Primary	p. 35
The Two-Tiered Nomination Process	p. 45
Changing Technology, Changing Campaign Strategies	p. 54
Third-Party Nominations	p. 56
Nomination Controversies	p. 57
Is this a Fair Way to Select a Presidential Nominee?	p. 59
General Criticisms of Primary-Centered Nominations	p. 61
Who Should Vote	p. 65
Are Caucuses Fair?	p. 69
Concerns over Convention Delegate Selection	p. 71
Superdelegates	p. 78
Winning Votes Versus Winning Pledged Delegates	p. 81
The Accidental Calendar, Part 1: Iowa and New Hampshire Come First	p. 88
The Accidential Calendar, Part 2: The Perils of Front-Loading	p. 91
A Hodgepodge of Rules and Procedures	p. 92
Alternative Methods for Nominating Presidents	p. 94
Regional Primary Plans	p. 95
Grouping States by Population Size: The Delaware Plan	p. 98
Other Variants of Grouped Primaries	p. 100
One-Day National Primary	p. 103
Alternative Mechanisms for Counting the Votes in a National Primary	p. 105
Convention-Centered Plans	p. 110
Pathways to Reform	p. 112
Rescuing the Matching Funds System	p. 115
Predicting the Consequences of Reform	p. 117
Oddities, Biases, and Strengths of U.S. Presidential Nomination Politics	p. 119
Oddities in U.S. Presidential Nomination Politics	p. 120
Biases in U.S. Presidential Nomination Politics	p. 122
Strengths of U.S. Presidential Nomination Politics	p. 125
Nominating Presidents in a System with Oddities, Biases, and Strengths	p. 127
Notes	p. 129
Bibliography	p. 141
Index	p. 150
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

The Imperfect Primary: Oddities, Biases, and Strengths of U.S. Presidential Nomination Politics

The Imperfect Primary: Oddities, Biases, and Strengths of U.S. Presidential Nomination Politics

0415995450

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Write a Review