The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations

(Paperback)

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Description

Front-loading has emerged in several US election cycles and is the single most criticized feature of the American presidential selection process. Where state primaries and caucuses were once spread out over a period of three or four months, most are now crammed into a four- or five-week interval at the very beginning of the delegate selection calendar. The system that results has been called "absurdly accelerated", "dangerously irrational", "warped and virtually mindless" and a "parody of participatory democracy". This text addresses the front-loading problem, providing a comprehensive examination of the entire issue: what front-loading is, when and why it developed, and its consequences for the nomination process as a whole. It also presents a detailed analysis of the major proposals for coping with front-loading and of the political and constitutional obstacles to reform. While the book concludes that there is no easy solutions to this complex problem, it identifies a general direction for reform efforts and urges that the political parties be given the principal responsibility for enacting and implementing these changes.

Reviews

"This clearly written and convincingly-argued book provides a comprehensive and meticulous analysis of the problem of 'front-loading' in the United States." Alan Siaroff, University of Lethbridge, Canada, Political Studies Review, 4/1/2005

"[the] book itself is a good general history of our current nomination system and its problems...its conclusions should be carefully considered by anyone interested in improving the quality of our nomination system." David A. Crockett, Trinity University, Congress & the Presidency, 9/15/2006

Author Bio

William G. Mayer is associate professor of political science at Northeastern University. His books include The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2004 (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Andrew E. Busch is an associate professor of political science at the University of Denver. He is the author of Outsiders and Openness in the Presidential Nominating System (University of Pittsburgh Press).