Sign-In
Cart
Distorting Democracy
Paperback
General LawGeneral Political ScienceUnited States Politics
ISBN13: 9781493085989
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: Sep 17 2024
Pages: 250
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.80 Depth: 8.60
Language: English
The complicated history of how America elects presidents and why this matters to the next election
An engaging mix of history and political science, Distorting Democracy will awaken Americans to the perils of our system by unveiling the Electoral College's origins, history, and current problems. This book demonstrates that the system has no principled foundation, that it has changed dramatically over its 230-year history, and that it now threatens the legitimacy of our political system.
The book is divided into three ground-breaking sections:
Part I tells the story of the Electoral College's origins in the Constitutional Convention. Defenders of the Electoral College tend to invoke gauzy images of the Founding Fathers infusing our system with their unique, timeless wisdom. But history tells a very different story. The Founding Fathers faced a mess; they responded by creating a mess.
Part II traces two hundred years of innovations--many of them subtle but highly consequential--to the plan described in the Constitution. As the new nation rapidly descended into bitter political conflict, many of the framers themselves, driven by their partisan interests, massaged the Electoral College into a form that differed profoundly from their founding intentions. Subsequent generations tinkered similarly with the systems' possibilities, always exploiting its potential for political gain.
Part III examines how our strange presidential election system has produced frustrating results with increasing frequency in recent elections. Who can forget the Bush-Gore contest of 2000, when the results hinged on hanging chads and fewer than 1,500 votes in Florida? Americans endured weeks of a single-state recount, only to have the Supreme Court halt the process and hand the election to George W. Bush. Bush won the Electoral College by a single vote, but Al Gore captured 500,000 more popular votes. Then, in 2016, Donald Trump stunned the world with a substantial Electoral College victory of 302-227, though nearly 3 million more Americans preferred his opponent, and roughly 7 million voted for a third-party candidate.The system increasingly returns results that conflict with the expressed wishes of a majority of voters, a product of our hyper-polarized landscape and unique geopolitical distribution of party loyalists.
The system cannot improve until we learn the complicated history of the Electoral College and the lessons it holds for us today.
Every American should read this book. It brings facts and clarity to a debate that too often relies on conjecture about the Electoral College's purposes and ill-informed arguments about how it actually operates. The lessons herein are immense. -- Joshua A. Douglas, Ashland, Inc-Spears Distinguished Research Professor of Law, University of Kentucky
Also from
DuPont, Carolyn Renée
Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1975
DuPont, Carolyn Renée
Paperback
Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1975
DuPont, Carolyn Renée
Hardcover
Also in
United States Politics
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future
Shapiro, James
Hardcover
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets
Kretzmann, John P.
Paperback
Scandinavians in the State House: How Nordic Immigrants Shaped Minnesota Politics
Bergman, Klas
Paperback
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Swan, Jonathan
Haberman, Maggie
Hardcover
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Murphy, Chris
Hardcover
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Paperback
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the Maga Movement
Hanson, Victor Davis
Hardcover
Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America's Most Consequential Institution
Maddow, Rachel
Hardcover
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Clyburn, Jim
Hardcover
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover
Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department
Leonnig, Carol
Davis, Aaron C.
Hardcover
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Naparstek, Aaron
Goodyear, Sarah
Gordon, Doug
Hardcover
The Promise of a Nation: Commemorating 250 Years of Patriotism, Resilience, and Aspirations from the National Collection
Smithsonian Institution
Hardcover
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
Wagner, Alex
Hardcover
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Scaramucci, Anthony
Hardcover
American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America Into a Monarchy
Onishi, Bradley B.
Hardcover
So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.
Hardcover
The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats - And Our Response - Will Change the World
Bremmer, Ian
Paperback
Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America (Large Print Edition)
Weissmann, Andrew
Paperback
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People
Bowie, Nikolas
Renan, Daphna
Hardcover
Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement
Canellos, Peter S.
Hardcover
A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization
Jennings, Scott
Hardcover
The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History
Peterson, Mark
Hardcover
Don't Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance
Collamore, Tom
Becker, Jean
Hardcover
Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox
Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey
Hardcover
When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System
Ballou, Brendan
Hardcover
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Ansfield, Bench
Hardcover
How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will (Large Print) (Large Print Edition)
Kennedy, John
Paperback
Tripwires: 15 Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy--And How to Reclaim It
Patterson, Richard North
Hardcover
Common Sense in the Age of Trump: A Guide to Keeping Our Republic
Collins, Ronald K. L.
Huxtable, Russell W.
Sparrow, Paul M.
Paperback
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (Tenth Anniversary Edition)
Speck, Jeff
Paperback
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution (Large Print Edition)
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
The Democracy We Must Keep: Seven Founders, Nine Documents, and the Ideas That Shaped America
Stewart, David O.
Paperback
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Herman, Edward S.
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
Princeton Review AP U.S. Government & Politics Premium Prep, 25th Edition: 6 Practice Tests + Digital Practice Online + Content Review
The Princeton Review
Paperback
The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight
Ralston, Jon
Hardcover
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (Large Print) (Large Print Edition)
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
Moskowitz, Pe
Paperback
This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U. S. History (Large Print Edition)
Gage, Beverly
Hardcover
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
Nichols, Tom
Paperback
The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
Guariglia, Matthew
Hochman, Brian
Paperback
AP U.S. Government and Politics Premium, 2027: Prep Book with 6 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (Barron's AP Prep)
Lader, Curt, M. S. Ed
Paperback
The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History
Prakash, Saikrishna Bangalore
Hardcover
We Are The Bad Guys: How The U.S. Wages War, Controls Economies, and Calls It Freedom
Lester, Michael
Paperback
When You Come at the King: Inside Doj's Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump
Honig, Elie
Hardcover
Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One
Carter, Majora
Paperback
How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything in
Gardner, Dan
Flyvbjerg, Bent
Hardcover
Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science
Blumenthal, David
Morone, James a.
Hardcover
What Does the Constitution Actually Say?: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work
Sheehan, Ben
Paperback
Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See
Miller, Jim
Davis, Mike
Mayhew, Kelly
Paperback
The Declaration Of Independence, United States Constitution, Bill Of Rights & Amendments
Fathers, Founding
Paperback
Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden
Dugard, Martin
O'Reilly, Bill
Hardcover
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
Klinenberg, Eric
Paperback
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
Ganz, John
Paperback
Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump
Zoughbie, Daniel E.
Hardcover
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
Levitsky, Steven
Ziblatt, Daniel
Paperback
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Hardcover
Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House
Leganski, John
Hardcover
How the Democrats Lost America: Making Sense of the 2024 Election and the Future of American Politics
Ferson, Scott
Hardcover
The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City
Madrigal, Alexis
Paperback
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Lee, Bandy X.
Paperback
The Death and Life of Gentrification: A New Map of a Persistent Idea
Brown-Saracino, Japonica
Hardcover