Reform and Retrenchment
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-777408-3 (ISBN)
Exploring changes in American primary election laws from the 1920s to the 1970s, Robert G. Boatright argues in Reform and Retrenchment that the introduction of the direct primary created far more chaos in American elections than most scholars realize. As he shows, political parties, factions, and reform groups manipulated primary election laws in order to gain an advantage over their opponents, often under the guise of enhancing democracy. Today there is widespread dissatisfaction with primaries, and we are again in a period of experimentation. Boatright looks at how this history can help us understand the reform ideas before us today, ultimately suggesting that, for all of its flaws, there is likely little that can be done to improve primaries, and those who would seek to change American politics are best off exploring reforms to other areas of elections and governance.
Robert G. Boatright is Professor of Political Science at Clark University and the Director of Research for the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on the effects of campaign and election laws on the behavior of politicians and interest groups, with a particular emphasis on primary elections and campaign finance laws. He is the author or editor of nine books, including The Deregulatory Moment? A Comparative Perspective on Changing Campaign Finance Laws (2016); Getting Primaried: The Causes and Consequences of Congressional Primary Challenges (2013); and Interest Groups and Campaign Finance Reform in the United States and Canada (2011). He has served on many different task forces studying political reform, campaign finance, and primary elections, including the Bipartisan Policy Center's Task Force on Campaign Finance, and the Campaign Finance Institute's advisory board.
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I: The Middle Years: Primary Election Reforms, 1928-1970
2. Reform or Retrenchment? An Overview of Changes in Primary Election Laws, 1928-1970
3. The Direct Primary and the Decline of the Progressive Movement
4. Hostile Takeover: Nonparty Group Capture of Primaries
5. Defective Primary Laws
6. Primaries and Partisan Advantage
7. Are Southern Primaries Different?
Part II: What the History of Primary Elections can Tell us About Contemporary Reform Ideas
8. Contemporary Primary Reform Efforts
9. Why Primary Reforms Rarely Work
10. The Future of the Direct Primary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Erscheinungsdatum | 25.04.2024 |
---|---|
Zusatzinfo | 33 b/w figures; 29 tables |
Verlagsort | New York |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 226 x 150 mm |
Gewicht | 567 g |
Themenwelt | Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung |
Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften | |
ISBN-10 | 0-19-777408-3 / 0197774083 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-777408-3 / 9780197774083 |
Zustand | Neuware |
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
aus dem Bereich