THREAD:
Everyone asking “is the Party Deciding?” OT1H, it sure looks like party leaders are coordinating to help Biden. OTOH, weren’t they supposed to do that in the invisible primary? And anyway, shouldn’t we wait till people vote?
We’re not Mayor Pete! This isn’t Iowa! 1/10
Everyone asking “is the Party Deciding?” OT1H, it sure looks like party leaders are coordinating to help Biden. OTOH, weren’t they supposed to do that in the invisible primary? And anyway, shouldn’t we wait till people vote?
We’re not Mayor Pete! This isn’t Iowa! 1/10
Meanwhile, however, I think it’s safe to say that the book is relevant. Here’s my view… 2/10
The Party Decides is ultimately about how to think about parties in nominations. Instead of looking at nominations from the POV of candidates competing for votes, we looked from the POV of the party, and the incentives of activists, leaders and long-standing members. 3/10
This meant we had to think hard about who was the party, which led to other work on groups and policy-demanders. Our view of “the party” is broader and more fluid than some. 4/10 faculty.georgetown.edu/hcn4/Downloads…
Part of the argument is about how parties responded to the environment that was created after McGovern-Fraser, but part of it was also about the period before reform, and the general problem that party leaders face in any nomination. 5/10
Coordination is hard, but there are reasons for self-identifying party leaders to want to try anyway, because if they don’t, things they don’t like things can happen. They can even happen at a convention. When the environment changes, they will try to adapt. 6/10
After McG-F, parties slowly learned that coordinating in the invisible primary was a good approach. But even so, they’ve often had some trouble doing that, because coordination IS hard. Sometimes, the groups in the party just don’t agree. 7/10
Sometimes attempts to coordinate in the invisible primary fail, but they party doesn’t give up. See for instance 1988, and 2004, where a lot of party coordinating activity happened after Iowa. So 2020 might be a case like that. 8/10
But also, for a variety of reasons (faculty.georgetown.edu/hcn4/Downloads…), the environment is changing, and the parties are still learning to adapt. 9/10
In other words, the view of parties in the book can explain part of what is now happening. I think looking at nominations from the point of view of the party is incredibly helpful. But there are also clearly features of the current situation that the book isn’t about 10/10.
