Hardback
August 25, 1988
9780813105505
English
200
.95 Pounds (US)
$20.00 USD
v2.1 Reference
Electronic book text
March 17, 2025
9780813183046
9780813105505
English
200
$12.95 USD
v2.1 Reference

Without Consent

Mass-Elite Linkages in Presidential Politics

The transmission of policy preferences from the mass electorate to the political elite is the subject of Warren Miller's illuminating new book. The elites of whom he writes are the delegates to recent nominating conventions analyzed in their subsequent roles as activists involved in presidential election campaigns. Miller's analysis delineates circumstances and conditions that affect the degree to which the issue preferences of these elite activists are more or less representative of those held by rank-and-file members of the nation's electorate.

Miller argues that, although consent and accountability are basic principles in the theory of democratic representation, the ways in which convention delegates are selected are not designed to implement these principles. Nevertheless, empirical analysis demonstrates that they often do so to varying degrees. Delegates selected in primary elections, Miller finds, are more representative of the ordinary voters than are delegates selected by any other means—except for Democratic super delegates, who are the most representative of all.

Miller's analysis explains why elites who campaign on behalf of particular candidates are less representative of mass policy opinions than are those who campaign on behalf of their parties, and why, ironically, the elites who campaign on behalf of specific policies are even less representative of the issue positions of their parties' rank-and-file partisans.
Without Consent, a sequel to Parties in Transition, makes an important contribution to the literature on theories of representation by its novel analysis of linkages connecting public opinion and public policy through the presidential campaign elites.

About the Author

Warren E. Miller is professor of political science at Arizona State University and principal investigator of the National Election Studies at the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan.

Reviews

"Miller seeks to test the general assumption that party as a guide to voting behavior has weakened; and that elections are normally determined by voters' assessment of the incumbent and policy preference."—American Politics Review

"Open additional avenues of study and serve as bases for new research undertakings."—The Annals of the American Academy

"It serves as an important contribution to the continually expanding literature on presidential-candidate selection ad end electoral behavior."—The Annals of the American Academy

9780813105505 : without-consent-miller
Hardback
200 Pages
$20.00 USD
9780813183046 : without-consent-miller
Electronic book text
March 17, 2025
$12.95 USD

Other Titles from Blazer Lectures

Harlan Hubbard

Wendell Berry
Oct 2021 - University Press of Kentucky
$30.00 USD - Paperback / softback
$25.00 USD - Electronic book text
$25.00 USD - Electronic book text

A Woman's Wage, updated edition

Alice Kessler-Harris
May 2014 - University Press of Kentucky
$25.00 USD - Paperback / softback
$25.00 USD - Electronic book text
$25.00 USD - Electronic book text

Becoming Native To This Place

Wes Jackson
Apr 2014 - University Press of Kentucky
$30.00 USD - Hardback
$30.00 USD - Electronic book text
$30.00 USD - Electronic book text

Other Titles in POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Campaigns & Elections

The Presidential Pulse of Congressional Elections

James E. Campbell
Dec 2025 - University Press of Kentucky
$30.00 USD - Paperback / softback
$12.95 USD - Electronic book text

Super Tuesday

Barbara Norrander
Mar 2025 - University Press of Kentucky
$30.00 USD - Hardback
$12.95 USD - Electronic book text

The Life of the Parties

Ronald Rapoport, Alan I. McGlennon, John Abramowitz
Mar 2025 - University Press of Kentucky
$35.00 USD - Hardback
$12.95 USD - Electronic book text