Why Do They Call it the ‘Democratic’ Party?

February 19, 2004

Comments

Steven Taylor, who has a Ph.D. in political science and did his dissertation on the electoral system of Colombia, can not quite grasp the delegate selection process of the Democratic Party.

5 responses to “Why Do They Call it the ‘Democratic’ Party?”

Steven

February 19, 2004 at 4:05 pm

I’m working on it. I should have the right numbers soon, although they are an estimate. I will admit that the darn PLEO’s create some problems.
Chris Lawrence

February 19, 2004 at 4:13 pm

It’s not a bad system (excluding the superdelegates, that is); the problem is that the media and the party don’t actually incorporate the system into their election-night reporting mechanism. Hence why everyone’s running around making estimates.
James Joyner

February 19, 2004 at 4:30 pm

No, I think that’s right. I’m not opposed to the quasi-PR system they’ve got going–even if it is rather evocative of Germany’s! The Super Delegates are rather odd, though–trying to bring back the days of smoke filled rooms.
mark

February 19, 2004 at 5:20 pm

…trying to bring back the days of smoke filled rooms.

Not if Michael Bloomberg has anything to say about it!
Steven

February 19, 2004 at 8:03 pm

That and the PLEO’s, The “Add-On Unpledged” and misc other features do make it a tad silly.

Plus, in my cursory revue of the rules, it was unclear to me what formula was used to the precise formla for awarding delegates–as it can’t be perfect proportionality because of the 15% threshold.

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