Tag Archives

Archive of posts published in the tag: primaries

Reduced to Spectators

From The Atlantic, How American Politics Went Insane by Jonathan Rauch Starting in the 1970s, large-dollar donations to candidates and parties were subject to a tightening web of regulations. The idea was to reduce corruption (or its appearance) and curtail the power

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The Upside of Pork

From The Atlantic, How American Politics Went Insane by Jonathan Rauch Congress has not passed all its annual appropriations bills in 20 years, and more than $300 billion a year in federal spending goes out the door without proper authorization. Routine business

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Highly Motivated Extremists

From The Atlantic, How American Politics Went Insane by Jonathan Rauch The use of primary elections instead of conventions, caucuses, and other insider-dominated processes dates to the era of Theodore Roosevelt, but primary elections and party influence coexisted through the 1960s; especially

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Neutralizing Political Institutions

From The Atlantic, How American Politics Went Insane by Jonathan Rauch Moreover, recent research by the political scientists Jamie L. Carson and Jason M. Roberts finds that party leaders of yore did a better job of encouraging qualified mainstream candidates to challenge

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