Presidential elections: strategies of American electoral politics

Once again, as we approach the furor, the excitement-and the bewilderment-of a presidential election, many Americans confess to being baffled by the process of electoral politics. Many of them ask: How does the electoral college operate ? How do candidates decide on strategy when campaigning for the nomination ? What reforms can improve this complex system ?
One of the most lucid, widely praised books on this subject has been Presidential Elections, first published in 1964. Now this searching appraisal of the process of presidential elections has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date.
For this new edition, Professors Polsby and Wildavsky have added a chapter which examines the unique characteris tics of the Goldwater candidacy, and have evaluated the 1964 pre-convention and convention tactics, the campaign, and its consequences. Also new is a section on the vice-presidency, and an assessment of new laws and court decisions concerning the presidency, the electoral college and elections.
The exceptionally useful features of the first edition have been retained: the analy sis of the most persistent components of the political system; the strategies emp loyed by candidates for nomination and election; and the many proposals for improving the party system, the electoral college, and the nominating conventions. The authors also consider the significance of free elections for the democratic process.
Presidential Elections will help every: reader understand much more about the political system under which he lives, and the seemingly strange events which take place under the lables of conventions and elections, including the use of opinion polls and election night computers.