U.s. Government 's Presidential Selection Process

Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.

As different problems have come up and been resolved in the presidential election process, it has, over time, become more democratic. The Electoral College is voted for by the people, primaries/caucuses allow citizens to nominate delegates to vote for their nominee, and the two-party system is broad enough to allow many people to participate in the election process. All in all, even though we don’t directly elect our president, we still play a huge part in electing the people who do vote and because of this, I think the system is very

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was held to address problems in governing the United States which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation since it’s independence from Britain. Fifty-five delegates from the states attended the convention to address these issues. The delegates consisted of federalists who wanted a strong central government to maintain order and were mainly wealthier merchants and plantation owners and anti-federalists who were farmers, tradesmen and local politicians who feared losing their power and believed more power should be given to the states. The Constitutional Convention dealt with the issue of the debate between federalists and anti-federalists. The debates, arguments and compromises

The First Party System refers to a period between 1792 and the 1820’s when the American political system was divided into two parties. Both parties, the Federalist Party, and the Democratic-Republican Party, wanted control of the Congress, the presidency, and the states. The parties were the result of the differences between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson on how to solve various national problems such as the economic crisis that was threatening the nation at the time (Dickerson, 2004). However, the roots of these political parties and concerns emerged during the constitution ratification process. On one hand, the Federalists supported the constitution while, on the other hand, the Antifederalists (Democratic-Republican) did not support it due to key issues that had not been considered in the new constitution (rAndon HersHey & Beck, 2015).

The McGovern-Fraser Commission changed the presidential primary system by writing new rules to make the Democratic Party conventions more open to input from the public as well as representative. By doing so, the public and party leaders could no longer “handpick” the convention delegates virtually in secret and the delegate selection process was required to be open for anyone to participate.

According to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, this was the original structure of the Electoral College. Each state was given a certain number of electors based on the number of state senators, which was always 2, as well as the number of U.S. representatives, which varied by decades based on the states population.

The history of the Electoral college goes back to 1804 to the framers of the constitution. Many of the nations founding fathers actually did not trust direct democracy and wanted to create a system that had balance between power of the people and power of the government. As James Madison described , he was worried about “ factions” in democracy. “These groups of citizens with a common interest in a proposal that would violate the right of citizens or the nation as a whole” (Joe Miller), Madison's fear which Alexis de Tocqueville later named as the “tyranny of majority”, was that these factions could become the fifty percent and win the majority. Subsequently delegates proposed a variety of different methods to elect the president in order for this to not occur. According to Joe Miller’s article the delegates voted more than 60 times before they finally chose a

In 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America worked together to identify the best way to elect the President (Patterson, 2013). The ideas suggested varied and ranged from selection by members of congress chosen by lottery, to a popular vote of the people. By the end of the Convention the matter had yet to be settled as the framers fore saw that many of the suggestions were prone to corruption, error, and were very chaotic. The issue was passed down to the Committee on Postponed Matters, who in turn created the system that is used today and is commonly known as Electoral College (Kazin, 2011). The Electoral College was outlined by the Committee to up hold the views of the founding fathers, who were the framers of the Constitution.

The ward and precincts were where most of the action took place. A precinct is the smallest district for electoral votes and a ward is how a city is divided. There were committeemen and captains at this level. People working at this level very often were given government jobs for the work they did for the party.

If we were listening in on the conversation going on at the table we would be able to see that there were three predominant theories on how the president should be elected. The first idea was for Congress to choose the president by voting on the candidates they saw fit. (Hendricks) The main problem with this idea was the tilt of power towards the legislative branch. If the legislative branch was given this express power of ushering in the executive not only would it tilt the balance of power towards the legislative but it would also open the door wide to corruption and bargaining. The second option on the table was the election of the president of the United States by the state legislatures (much like the Senators were first elected). (Hendricks) The biggest fear behind this idea was the possibility of an executive that was too intertwined with the state, an executive who slowly worked with the state and helped them erode the power of the central government. This would undermine the whole idea of the republic that the founding fathers were trying to build and thus was an idea that was quickly disregarded. The third and final proposal was the direct election of the president by the people, or now more famously known as the popular or national vote. (Smith) The biggest problem behind this proposition is the likeliness of the electorate to vote for a “favorite son” or a figure that they identify with personally rather than politically and

The Presidential Primaries is a system put in place to help chose the best candidates for being the President of the United States of America. Now whether it is or is not an effective system is yet to be discussed later on in the paper, but it was put in place to help better to represent the people of the U.S. The presidential Primaries is very crucial to the candidates running for presidency. It allows the public to see who the candidates are, and how they conduct a campaign against one another.

After Washington became president, people started forming political parties based on how they thought the government should be run. Washington did not like the idea of the country being divided into “factions,” as he called them. But the problem was that this was happening

The United States began as a weak, newborn nation that grew into a large, self-supporting country with a governing body unique to this time period. As the government grew and the nation prospered, the rise of leaders and political figures came about and with this, conflicting principles and ideology spawned, thus creating the first of the political parties; the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Although the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans ideology and stances on the power of the federal government, domestic economic policies and the group of constituents they represented differed vastly, members of both parties often compromised their own beliefs for the nation’s best interest as a whole.

Democracy in the United States is based on the indirect representation of the people by elected officials who are usually chosen by direct vote. Almost from the beginning of the United States' history, however, two parties have shared the great majority of the elected positions from the local level to the presidency. However, up until the mid-1850's when the Republican party was formed, other parties such as the Whigs, Federalists, and Anti-Federalists did not last very long. The Democratic Party has existed for much longer, tracing its roots from Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Republican Party beginning around 1792 (Encarta). The two largest parties have changed, third parties have

The idea for picking the president came from the same way that the Pope is selected by using Roman Catholic Church of the College of Cardinals. The structure of the Electoral College can be traced to the system used by the Roman Republic. In that system the richest people were divided into groups of 100 called Centuries. Each group was entitled to cast one vote in favor or opposing certain measures. This is exactly how the Electoral College system works in America by having electors based on the size of the state cast their vote for the candidate that is chosen in that state. The systems are extremely similar and have virtually the same advantages and disadvantages. These