Presidential Elections

Strategies and Structures of American Politics

By (author) Nelson W. Polsby, Aaron Wildavsky, Steven E. Schier, David A. Hopkins

Publication date:

05 August 2019

Length of book:

320 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781538125106

Polsby and Wildavsky’s classic text argues that the institutional rules of the presidential nomination and election processes, in combination with the behavior of the mass electorate, structure the strategic choices faced by politicians in powerful and foreseeable ways. We can make sense of the decisions made by differently situated political actors—incumbents, challengers, Democrats, Republicans, consultants, party official, activists, delegates, journalists, and voters—by understanding the ways in which their world is organized by incentives, regulations, events, resources, customs, and opportunities.

Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Preface

PART I. THE STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT

1. VOTERS
Why People Don’t Vote
Why People Do Vote: A Theory of Social Connectedness
Party Identification as Social Identity
Parties as Aggregates of Loyal Voters
Ideologies, Issues, and National Conditions in the Minds of Voters
Changes in Party Identification: Social Habit versus Contemporary Evaluation
A Central Strategic Problem: The Attentiveness of Voters

2. GROUPS
The Presidential Vote as an Aggregation of Interest Groups
Variations among Interest Groups
“Special” Interests, Campaign Spending, and Public Interest Groups
Political Parties as Organizations
Third Parties

3. RULES AND RESOURCES
Rules: The Electoral College
Thinking About Resources
Resources: Money
The Beverly Hills Primary
Campaign Finance in Presidential Primaries
Raising and Spending Money in the General Election
Does Money Buy Elections?
Campaign Finance Reform
Resources: Control over Information
Newspapers
Television
Internet Media
Incumbency as a Resource: The Presidency
Incumbency as a Liability: The Vice Presidency
The Balance of Resources

PART II. SEQUENCES

4. THE NOMINATION PROCESS
Before the Voting Begins: The “Invisible Primary”
Iowa and New Hampshire: First in the Nation
1972
1976
1992
2004
2008
2012
2016
What Do These Historical Vignettes Teach?
State Primaries
State Caucuses
Delegate Allocation
Superdelegates
The National Party Conventions
Party Delegates at the Conventions
The Convention as Advertising
The Vice Presidential Nominee
The Future of National Conventions

5. THE CAMPAIGN
The Well-Traveled Candidates
Persuading Voters
Economic Policy and Performance
Foreign Policy and Performance
Social Issues and the “Culture War”
Presentation of Self
Negative Campaigning
Getting Good Press
Campaign Professionals
Policy Advisers
Polling
Focus Groups
Television Advertising
New Media
Televised Debates
Getting Out the Vote
Campaign Blunders
Forecasting the Outcome
Counting the Vote

PART III. ISSUES

6. APPRAISALS
Reform upon Reform
The Political Theory of Policy Government
Reform by Means of Participatory Democracy
Some Specific Reforms
The Nomination Process
The Decline of the National Convention
The Electoral College
Party Platforms and Party Differences

7. AMERICAN PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY
Elections and Public Policy
Parties of Advocacy versus Parties of Intermediation

APPENDIXES
A. Vote by Groups in Presidential Elections, 1984–2016
B. Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections, by Population Characteristics, 1984–2016
C. Selections from the Democratic and Republican Party Platforms, 2016

Notes
Index

Since it first published in 1964, Presidential Elections has been an instant classic. Schier and Hopkins continue the tradition by offering a 360-degree view of the changing American elections landscape.