The American Direct Primary: Party Institutionalization and Transformation in the North

by Alan J. Ware

Book Overview

This is the first major study of the origins of direct primary elections in the U.S. since the 1920s. It rejects the widely held view that primaries resulted from a conflict between anti-party reformers and so-called party regulars. Instead, it shows that the direct primary was the result of an attempt, starting in the late 1880s, by mainstream party politicians to subject their previously informal procedures to formal rules. Politicians turned to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521109728
• ISBN13: 9780521109727
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"