Author Description

1. Happenstance And Reforms: A Short History Of Presidential Nominations; Two Early Views: Nominations By Political Elites; The Party Convention Eras; The Origins Of Presidential Primaries; A Mixed System: Conventions And Primaries 1948-1960; Moving To A Primary-dominated System; The Primary Dominated Era: 1972 And Forward -- 2. Presidential Nomination Politics At The Dawn Of The 21st Century: Recent Nomination Contests; The Candidates; The (not So) Invisible Primary; The Two-tiered Nomination Process; Changing Technology, Changing Campaign Strategies; Third-party Nominations; Nomination Controversies -- 3. Is This A Fair Way To Select A Presidential Nominee?: General Criticisms Of Primary-centered Nominations; Who Should Vote; Are Caucuses Fair?; Concerns Over Convention Delegate Selection; Superdelegates; Winning Votes Versus Winning Pledged Delegates; The Accidental Calendar Part 1: Iowa And New Hampshire Come First; The Accidental Calendar Part 2: The Perils Of Front-loading; A Hodgepodge Of Rules And Procedures -- 4. Alternative Methods For Nominating Presidents: Regional Primary Plans; Grouping States By Population Size: The Delaware Plan; Other Variants Of Grouped Primaries; One-day National Primary; Alternative Mechanisms For Counting The Votes In A National Primary; Convention-centered Plans; Pathways To Reform; Rescuing The Matching Funds System; Predicting The Consequences Of Reform -- 5.oddities, Biases And Strengths Of U.s.. Presidential Nomination Politics: Oddities In U.s. Presidential Nomination Politics; Biases In Presidential Nomination Politics; Strengths In Presidential Nomination Politics; Nominating Presidents In A System With Oddities, Biases, And Strengths. Barbara Norrander. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.