The protests following the 2016 Presidential Election express the frustration of many with the outcome, and various decisions in the early weeks of the new administration. But I worry that the electorate might forget the central role that the broken primary systems played in the election. The primaries of both parties (all parties) failed to … Continue reading Protest Anything, but Reform the US Primaries
2016 Elections
The Electoral College as Seen from the Windows of the New York Times
It has been a long-standing joke that New Yorkers view most of the states that compose the United States as insignificant in relation to New York City. One of the famous images of this view was on the cover of the New Yorker in 1976. Well, it appears that the New York Times, in keeping … Continue reading The Electoral College as Seen from the Windows of the New York Times
This is the United STATES of America: The Primaries are the Problem!
In the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential elections, the shock of Donald Trump’s surprising win has generated a flurry of initiatives to turn back the clock and rerun or overturn the election, such as Jill Stein’s failed attempt to recount the ballots in a number of key states. The most worrisome efforts – to me … Continue reading This is the United STATES of America: The Primaries are the Problem!
The 2016 US Presidential Election and the Institution of the Presidency
One of the classic works on the governance of England is Walter Bagehot’s (1867) The English Constitution. He observed that through the evolution of its unwritten Constitution entailed two critical but separate components, the ‘dignified’ and the ‘efficient’. The former exercised symbolic power and was represented by the monarch, who did not have effective power … Continue reading The 2016 US Presidential Election and the Institution of the Presidency