You Call This an Election?: America's Peculiar Democracy

by Steven E. Schier

Those who do not have their heads buried too deeply in partisan sands will know that there is something awry with the American form of electoral democracy. Florida's continuing ability to misplace votes recently and in the 2000 Presidential election is only part of the iceberg we have been made privy to-and Steven Schier takes a good, hard, evaluative look not only at what is there in plain sight, but that which lurks below the surface (and not...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878408959
• ISBN13: 9780878408955
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Steven Schier's "You Call This an Election?"

This is a remarkable book. It is primarily a think piece, but it is one that knits together an extraordinary amount of research and a large number of topics in political science that rarely meet. Schier's basic argument is that piecemeal attempts to correct problems in American elections -- problems such as the Electoral College, campaign financing, and incoherent voter initiatives and referenda -- will not go nearly as far in inspiring political participation as will a rethinking of the plurality-winner voting rules that we use to select our political leaders. This would be a provocative book for stimulating discussion in upper-level undergraduate political science courses and introductory graduate courses. Political scientists looking for ideas and resources for studying a wide variety of electoral issues will also find much here. This is a valuable and timely work.