Discusses problems, shortcomings & injustices in theory, structure & process of election system and emphasizing Reagans’ 1980 & 1984 victories. Examines electoral college, indirect elections, TV dominated campaigns and primaries.
This study will investigate problems associated with the system of Presidential elections, dealing in general with the theory and structure of the Presidential election process, and specifically with the elections of 1980 and 1984 in which Ronald Reagan triumphed in landslide victories over Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.
The most common criticism of the Presidential election process in the past (that is, before the advent of television, debates presented immediately to the nation as a whole, the emergence of the primaries, campaign lengths and costs, etc.) has centered on the Electoral College. The major criticism of the Electoral College has been that it serves as an impediment to the direct election of the President by the people.
However, as Cummings and Wise write, that was the very(…)
The most common criticism of the Presidential election process in the past (that is, before the advent of television, debates presented immediately to the nation as a whole, the emergence of the primaries, campaign lengths and costs, etc.) has centered on the Electoral College. The major criticism of the Electoral College has been that it serves as an impediment to the direct election of the President by the people.
However, as Cummings and Wise write, that was the very(…)