Race to the bottom

[Ilya Somin]

I come to this discussion a bit late. But I should note that 1) I believe there are many far worse problems in modern federalism, and 2) it is not clear to me that the current primary system is significantly worse than available alternatives. Barrels of ink have been spilled over the primary system over the last 4 decades. But I have yet to see systematic proof that it produces worse candidates than either 1) the smoke-filled room system of old, or 2) the nomination systems used in other democracies with a presidential system, such as France. 

The key question, it seems to me, is whether major-party presidential candidates should be chosen by democratic means at all. If the answer to that question is yes, I don't see why a staggered primary system is necessarily worse than one with a few large clusters of states, or vice versa. 



Ilya Somin
Assistant Professor of Law
George Mason University School of Law
3301 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
ph: 703-993-8069
fax: 703-993-8202
e-mail: isomin at gmu.edu
Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~isomin/
SSRN Page: http://ssrn.com/author=333339

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Is there anyone who believes that the early-primary frenzy is a demonstration of federalism at its very worst?  I take it that every state is behaving "rationally," as is true in all prisoner's dilemma situations, and that the collective USA is the unmitigated loser.  

I am writing this from New Zealand, where I've spent quite a bit of time explaing the "peculiarities" of the US election system, which no sane country would adopt (and we retain only because of path dependence).  Our primary system has now become a dysfunctional laughingstock.  So the constitutional hook is this: Could Congress simply impose a sane primary system in the face of complete and utter irresponsibility of the states and the lack of any backbone by the ostensibly "national" parties.

Sandy
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