SOON after Donald Trump announced his candidacy, the usually bickering American pundits scoffed in unison. Armed with time-tested principles of political science, they were sure that no one so inexperienced and iconoclastic could build the consensus needed to win the Republican nomination. Their precious theories now sullied, scholars of American politics are hurriedly revising the old, and originating the new. A course on the political science of Trump will begin at the University of California, Irvine this month.
As with all disciplines, some explanations have gained more traction in political science than others. One of them was the idea put forward in a weighty and amply-footnoted book, “The Party Decides”, that parties still exert a good deal of influence over who gets the nomination. In a forthcoming paper in the journal Political Science and Politics, the book’s authors set out to save their theory from its mauling by Republican primary voters. A candidate who eschews consensus and campaigns only for a narrow section of voters could win, they concede, by appealing to voters directly via social media and...Continue reading
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