Electoral Reform and the Primaries: An American Lesson

ON THURSDAY 14 HARVARD POLITICAL SCIENTIST JAMES SNYDER WILL BE THE GUEST SPEAKER OF THE DONDENA LECTURE WITH A TALK ABOUT THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS PROVE TO BE POSITIVE TO DEMOCRATIC LIFE

The primaries are the mechanism that more than any other in the American system promotes the selection of a qualified political class. In areas with a strong Republican or Democratic prevalence, in many cases, primaries are the most important and less predictable elections.
 
Part of their positive impact is due to a clear regulation, variously declined by the States, from which other systems can draw valuable lessons. Especially the new Italian electoral system, where the primary elections could prove to be a democratically viable way to determine the names to be put on top of the blocked lists.
 
That’s why the Dondena Centre invited James Snyder, a Harvard political scientist, to hold the fifth Alberto Dondena Lecture. The 2015 edition of the lecture will be held on Thursday 14 at 17:30 in classroom N07, piazza Sraffa 13.

by Fabio Todesco