Presidential Elections · Strategies and Structures of American Politics by Polsby, Nelson W. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Tables, Figures, and Boxes Preface Part I THE STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT

1 VOTERS

2 GROUPS

The Presidential Vote as an Aggregation of Interest Groups Variations among Interest Groups “Special” Interests, Campaign Spending, and Public Interest Groups Political Parties as Organizations Third Parties

3 RULES AND RESOURCES

Rules: The Electoral College Thinking about Resources Resources: Money

The Beverly Hills Primary Campaign Finance in Presidential Primaries Raising and Spending Money in the General Election Does Money Buy Elections? Campaign Finance Reform

Resources: Control over Information

Newspapers Television The Internet and Other New Media

Incumbency as a Resource: The Presidency Incumbency as a Liability: The Vice Presidency The Balance of Resources

Part II SEQUENCES

4 THE NOMINATION PROCESS

Before the Primaries Iowa and New Hampshire: First in the Nation

1972 1976 1984 1992 2004 2008 2012

What Do These Historical Vignettes Teach? State Primaries State Caucuses Superdelegates The National Party Conventions Party Delegates at the Conventions The Convention as Advertising The Vice Presidential Nominee The Future of National Conventions

5 THE CAMPAIGN

The Well-Traveled Candidates Persuading Voters

Economic Issues Foreign Issues Social Issues Presentation of Self Negative Campaigning

Getting Good Press Campaign Professionals

Policy Advisers Polling Focus Groups Television Advertising New Media

Televised Debates Getting Out the Vote Campaign Blunders Forecasting the Outcome Counting the Vote

Part III ISSUES

6 APPRAISALS

Reform upon Reform The Political Theory of Policy Government Reform by Means of Participatory Democracy Some Specific Reforms

The Nomination Process The Decline of the National Convention The Electoral College

Party Platforms and Party Differences

7 AMERICAN PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY

Elections and Public Policy Parties of Advocacy versus Parties of Intermediation

APPENDIXES

Notes