From the Publisher
“Shafer and Sawyer have given us the most comprehensive account of presidential nomination in decades. It is theoretically astute, rich in historical detail, and masterfully synthetic, drawing on almost 200 years of experience with a keen eye for what is particular to a specific era, party, or set of rules and what is, as the authors put it, eternal”.
—Larry M. Bartels, Professor, Vanderbilt University, USA
“What sets this study apart from virtually everything else that has recently been written about presidential nominations is the remarkable scope of the inquiry. Where most recent work on this topic has been about one election or one component of the nomination process, Shafer and Sawyer’s book seeks to examine every major component of the process, for the entire period from 1832 to the present, and organizes those components according to the point at which they enter the ‘causal funnel.’ This book raises the bar for all future studies of the presidential nomination process.”
—William G. Mayer, Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University, USA
“Many books on the politics of the presidential nomination process focus on the modern era in which candidates vie for the nomination by competing in a series of state-by-state contests. This book offers an important new take by linking the modern era to the past. Through an original analysis of nearly 200 years of nomination contests, Shafer and Sawyer show how a dominant nominating dynamic runs through them all. Most critically, they demonstrate how factional alignments and struggles within the two major parties shape the choice among contenders. The authors argue that it is these deep structural influences—not the candidates themselves, the media who cover them, or the decisions of party leaders—that provide the most insight into the logic of the presidential nomination process.”
—Amber Wichowsky, Associate Professor, Marquette University, USA
