Rules Governing Presidential Primaries
Geer, John Gray
:
1986
Abstract
"Many observers of American politics have been highly critical of the proliferation of
primaries that occurred in the 1970s. One of the reasons given for this unfavorable assessment
is that the direct primary cannot consistently yield candidates who have broad electoral
support--something that is thought necessary to win general elections. And since the major
goal of parties is to win elections, this perceived shortcoming is cause for concern.
In this article I show, however, that the problem lies not with the direct primary itself,
but rather with the rules that govern presidential primaries. In fact, if parties would allocate
delegates proportionally to candidates, adopt a preference ballot, and allow independents
and "swing" voters to participate, the direct primary would offer an excellent opportunty
to nominate candidates with broad support"--From article.