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Public Choice (2012) 150:125
DOI 10.1007/s11127-011-9874-z
Nicholas R. Miller
Received: 9 August 2011 / Accepted: 10 August 2011 / Published online: 4 October 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract While the Electoral College may not be good for the political system, it is very good for political science (and public choice). This essay documents many of the ways in which this assertion is true.
Keywords Electoral College Social choice Institutional analysis
Whats bad for the political system is good for political science, and vice versa (attributed to Nelson Polsby)
Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America (by George C. Edwards, III, Yale University Press, 2003)
1 Introduction
The title and theme of this essay follow as a logical deduction from the major and minor premises stated above. Actually, I am ambivalent about whether the Electoral College is good or bad for the political system. I am inclined to view it as a problematic but serviceable institution. But I am sure of two things: rst, that the Electoral College makes presidential elections even more interesting than they otherwise would be and, secondand this is my present themethat the Electoral College is a terric boon for political science (and public choice) research (and teaching). Let us count (some of) the ways.
1. The Origins of the Electoral College and Applied Social Choice Theory. The framers of the Constitution expectedand certainly hopedthat politics at the national level would be nonpartisan in nature. Accordingly, their presidential selection system was designed
N.R. Miller ( )
Department of Political Science, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD 21250, USAe-mail: [email protected]
Why the Electoral College is good for political science (and public choice)
2 Public Choice (2012) 150:125
to choose a single broadly supported winner out of a potentially large eld of candidates concerning whom voter preferences were likely to be widely dispersed. Given this expectation, the original Electoral College system was in fact a cleverly designed method of applied social choice, though it probably did not quite merit Alexander Hamiltons afrmation (in Federalist 68) that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent.2. Unanticipated Consequences in Institutional Design. The original Electoral College was not only imperfect but contained a fatal aw, because the...