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Book Synopsis

Argues that Progressive Era reforms had the counterintuitive effect of weakening political parties and their role in representative government.

The last twenty years has seen a series of changes to American party politics: polarization, negative partisanship, decreasing voter turnout, and decreasing faith in elections and government. In Primary Elections and American Politics, Chapman Rackaway and Joseph Romance trace the origins of these and other problems to one of the most controversial reforms in American political history: the direct partisan primary election. With a comprehensive history of the primary election, the authors link the rise of primaries to the many political ills the nation faces today. They argue that the Progressives who created the primaries mistook direct democratic reforms, like the primary, for participatory democratic reforms like deliberative polling or participatory budgeting.

Primary Elections and American Politics

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    A Hardback by Chapman Rackaway, Joseph Romance

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      Publisher: State University of New York Press
      Publication Date: 10/1/2022 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9781438490571, 978-1438490571
      ISBN10: 1438490577

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Argues that Progressive Era reforms had the counterintuitive effect of weakening political parties and their role in representative government.

      The last twenty years has seen a series of changes to American party politics: polarization, negative partisanship, decreasing voter turnout, and decreasing faith in elections and government. In Primary Elections and American Politics, Chapman Rackaway and Joseph Romance trace the origins of these and other problems to one of the most controversial reforms in American political history: the direct partisan primary election. With a comprehensive history of the primary election, the authors link the rise of primaries to the many political ills the nation faces today. They argue that the Progressives who created the primaries mistook direct democratic reforms, like the primary, for participatory democratic reforms like deliberative polling or participatory budgeting.

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