What’s the Matter with American Elections?
Dr. Harvey Palmer
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Arts and Sciences
June 4, 2008
UB Reporter Article on Lecture
This rhetorical question is one regularly asked by Liberals and Conservatives when their despised candidate wins. Liberals today wonder how President Bush was reelected with a majority of the vote in the 2004 election, while Conservatives felt similar disbelief about Bill Clinton’s decisive reelection victory in the 1996 presidential election. According to the democratic ideal, elections are the means by which citizens control government and force politicians to represent their interests. But should we expect elections to select the “best” candidates? And if so, why does popular support seem so transitory with election winners being more polarizing than unifying (despite campaign rhetoric to the contrary)? This lecture will address these questions by discussing political science research on the nature of electoral behavior and the limits of voter sophistication.
Maps & Directions
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