A Citizen's Guide to Presidential Nominations

Using comparative data on candidate viability from 1976 to 2012, Wayne Steger demonstrates which presidential nominations are effectively won during the invisible primary stage, through the informal coordination of the party elite, and which nominations are determined by voter support in the primaries and caucuses. Through this analysis, Steger illuminates how presidential nomination politics has changed over recent decades and across the two parties.-Barbara Norrander, University of Arizona Steger's A Citizen's Guide to Presidential Nominations: The Competition for Leadership is more about the subtitle than the title. Steger (DePaul Univ.) writes less about rules, process, and schedule than about competition within parties and control of party coalitions. Average citizens may, in fact, be somewhat confused by Steger's use of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index for measuring competition, especially with little to no explanation of how it is derived, particularly for use in the context of presidential nominations. However, the overall discussion of different contexts for nomination races whether there is an incumbent in one party or the other or political leaders have coalesced around a single candidate contributes to the understanding of the process by average citizens. A Citizen's Guide would work well as a secondary reading in courses on the presidency or campaigns and elections, helping students gain an understanding of the dynamics of the process. --Jim Twombly, Elmira College