February 29, 2008
NetLibrary eBook Analyzes America's Presidential Nominating Process
The March NetLibrary eBook of the Month, From the Primaries to the Polls, presents the problems inherent in America's current presidential nominating process. Written by Thomas Gangale, author of the American Plan for reforming the presidential nomination process, the book reviews current practices and suggests ways to ensure both fairness and equity.
America's presidential nominating process is inherently unfair and exclusive, yielding undue weight and privilege to the states that vote in the earliest rounds. More and more states are beating down the door to vote earlier, trying to redress the inequity on a state-by-state basis. In the ensuing free-for-all, the presidential primary schedule has become so front-loaded that the anointed front-runner with the biggest war chest in each of the major parties is the de facto nominee. The primaries are becoming mere noise and pageantry, as the national conventions have been for several decades.
From the Primaries to the Polls describes the problem and proposes the solution. The American Plan is designed to begin with contests in small-population states, where candidates do not need millions of dollars to compete and a wide field of presidential hopefuls can be competitive in the early going. A minor candidate's surprise success in early rounds, based on merit rather than money, tends to attract money from larger numbers of small contributors for the campaign to spend in later rounds of primaries. Keeping more candidates in the race longer to challenge the front-runners prevents a rush to judgment and permits more voters across the country to select from a diverse field. As the campaign proceeds over 10 two-week intervals of primaries and caucuses on a semi-randomized schedule, the aggregate value of contested states becomes successively larger, requiring the expenditure of larger amounts of money in order to campaign effectively. A more gradual weeding-out process occurs, allowing a clear winner to emerge only after the full spectrum of candidates has been in play nationally.
The eBook of the Month showcases new and noteworthy titles available from NetLibrary. Each month, NetLibrary selects a new featured title and provides free, unlimited access through the authenticated homepages of more than 13,000 public, academic and special libraries. NetLibrary has developed a tool kit of free promotional materials that can be downloaded and personalized for your library.
For more information about eBooks, please contact BCR's Chris Cook at ccook@bcr.org.
