the nominating process

Question 1

what are invisible primaries?

Answer 1

-where candidates announce their candidacy
-used for name recognition, money, organisation and media
-visits to the key states that are the first states to hold their primaries - Iowa and New Hanpshire

Question 2

how do primaries work?

Answer 2

-they are elections run by state and local governments to select candidates for an upcoming election

Question 3

describe caucuses and how they could be seen as undemocratic:

Answer 3

-political meeting of party members
-people attend these in churches, libraries etc
-supporters attempt to maker a case for their candidate and attempt to convince undecided voters
-then votes are cast for a presidential candidate and delegates are selected to represent voters at the national nominating convention
-because Iowa is where the first caucus is held, they put more focus there e.g. in 2020 the top 10 democrat candidates spent an average of 2 months in Iowa
-the majority of republican candidates who led the polls ahead of Iowa went on to be president, yet Iowa is a small state so how is it fair that they have that much influence!

Question 4

what’s a closed primary?

Answer 4

only registered democrats can vote in the democrat primary and vice versa for republicans

Question 5

what’s an open primary?

Answer 5

any registered voter can vote in the primary of either party

Question 6

what’s super tuesday?

Answer 6

a tuesday when a number of states coincide their presidential primaries in order to gain influence for their region in the selection of major party presidential candidates

Question 7

what’s ‘front loading’?

Answer 7

where some states schedule their primaries/ caucuses earlier, to increase the importance of their state

Question 8

what are the advantages of the primary/caucus system?

Answer 8

-boosts political participation as ordinary voters can choose their party’s candidate
-allows political outsiders to run for office e.g. Trump
-they ‘road test’ candidates’ qualities for the office e.g. media presence
-caucuses provide an opportunity for ordinary voters to discuss strengths and weaknesses

Question 9

what are the disadvantages of the primary/caucus system?

Answer 9

-too much importance is placed on Iowa and New Hampshire, which are demographically unrepresentative of the rest of the US
-it increases the focus on candidates as
opposed to parties or policies, with many debates being heated and personal
-they have low turnout and in 2016 a poll revealed that only 35% of voters said primaries are a good way of selecting the best nominees
-the general public is bombarded by political ads and slogans (e.g. Trump’s MAGA), meaning they are less suited to understand a candidate’s true abilities
-primaries can cause voter fatigue

Question 10

describe national party nominating conventions:

Answer 10

-lasts 3-4 days
-often held in swing states
-they are always televised with lots of viewers, and the candidate will give an acceptance speech
-promotes party unity and generates an energy to enthuse the party faithful

Question 11

what are the functions of national party nominating conventions?

Answer 11

1. decide on party platform and promote it - in 2016 there was a lot of debate over the republican platform because they suggested a platform with strict conservative views on same sex marriage etc, which led to the 2015 obergevell vs hodges to be overturned
2. choose presidential candidate - although since the mcgovern-fraser reforms in 1972 the function has been to ‘crown’ them as the nominee is already known before the convention
3. reunite the party - e.g. in 2008 it was vital that the democrats showed a united front after the obama hillary clinton rivalry, so at the convention both clintons endorsed obama

Question 12

what is the electoral college?

Answer 12

a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president

Question 13

why is there an electoral college when there’s a total national vote?

Answer 13

it’s there to protect the smaller states, because if it was just on popular vote then candidates would only visit the more populated states

Question 14

how do you calculate how many electoral college votes a state gets?

Answer 14

number of representatives + number of senators (the fact it includes the senators protects the smaller states because all states have 2 senators regardless of population

Question 15

what happens when no candidate has an absolute majority in the electoral college?

Answer 15

-the house of representatives elects the president
-the senate elects the vice president

Question 16

arguments to justify the electoral college?

Answer 16

1. whoever gets selected usually wins the presidency e.g. in 2020 the clear winner of the popular vote, joe biden, also won the electoral college
2. it reflects the federal nature of the USA, by forcing candidates to campaign in all states
3. faithless electors have never affected the final outcome and are only a protest vote. 2008, 2012 and 2020 elections had no faithless electors. also can bring in laws to require electors to vote for their initial choice of candidate.
4. if their was an nation wide popular vote, candidates would only focus on larger states

Question 17

arguments against the electoral college?

Answer 17

1. there have been occasions where the winner of the popular vote didn’t win the electoral college and so failed to become president, e.g. Hillary Clinton 2016
2. it exaggerates the margins of victory e.g. in 1984 Reagan only won 59% of pop. vote but won 97% of electoral college votes
3. smaller states are overrepresented e.g. california gets one vote per 712,000 whereas wyoming gets one vote per 195,000
4. it was drawn up by founding fathers - synoptic link to constitution - in a very different political era, back when america was smaller and less diverse
5. encourages candidates to focus their campaign on the small number of swing states e.g. florida, ohio

Question 18

possible reforms to the electoral college: MS

Answer 18

-Maine System
-awarding one vote to a candidate for each congressional district that they win, and two votes to the candidate who is the state wide winner
-basically proportional representation

Question 19

possible reforms to the electoral college: PR

Answer 19

-PR system
-allocation of electoral college votes in each state in proportion to the popular vote
-would require other reforms to be made e.g. a threshold for winning electoral college votes within a state
-would move the US away from a 2 party system

Question 20

possible reforms to the electoral college: AP

Answer 20

-automatic plan
-would mean getting rid of the electors, making the allocation of electoral college votes purely automatic
-all it would do is get rid of the risk of faithless electors, but they’re rare anyway

Question 21

possible reforms to the electoral college: DAP

Answer 21

-direct action plan
-a directly elected president!
-would require a constitutional amendment
-but success would be unlikely as 2/3rds of states are small so they wouldn’t support it