FT 07-M Is This Any Way to Choose a President? David Hadley, Department of Political Science People say the Presidential selection process in the United States is too long, too expensive, too confusing, too burdensome for candidates and voters, too focused on extraneous issues and sound bite rhetoric, and often too personally demeaning for candidates. And it is undemocratic to boot! So how and why have we developed such a system for selecting what many consider the most powerful leader in the world? is the system as flawed as the critics claim or as ingenious as it proponents maintain? In this course, we will look for answers to these kinds of questions about the process by which we nominate and choose between candidates for President of the United States. We will examine how the Presidential selection process has developed and changed from the Constitutional Convention to present, how it works today, who it advantages and disadvantages, and whether it needs to be changes.
Credits: 1
