Excerpt from Selected Articles on Direct Primaries: Reprints These reprints, dealing with material upon both sides of the question of Direct Primaries, were prepared especially for the use of the Minnesota High School Debating League. Articles have been reprinted in whole or in part as the circumstances seemed to demand. Where a number of articles have dealt with the same material certain parts have been eliminated so as to avoid repetition. This has made it possible to put in compact and convenient form a large amount of valuable material. These reprints will be found especially valuable to students taking part in debates on the subject, or to clubs or individuals making a study of the subject. Librarians will find it most useful since it will furnish as much information on the subject as will ordinarily be called for, and will make available a large amount of valuable material that comparatively few libraries will have. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book rejects conventional accounts of how American political parties differ from those in other democracies. It focuses on the introduction of the direct primary and argues that primaries resulted from a process of party institutionalization initiated by party elites. It overturns the widely accepted view that, between 1902 and 1915, direct primaries were imposed on the parties by anti-party reformers intent on weakening them. An examination of particular northern states shows that often the direct primary was not controversial, and only occasionally did it involve confrontation between party 'regulars' and their opponents. Rather, the impetus for direct nominations came from attempts within the parties to subject informal procedures to formal rules. However, it proved impossible to reform the older caucus-convention system effectively, and party elites then turned to the direct primary - a device that already had become more common in rural counties in the late nineteenth century.