(S)ELECTING THE PRESIDENT

Looking at two salient characteristics of our current environment -- the declining influence of political parties; the communication revolution via the internet, social media, and cable television; and the impact of money -- this book asks whether our now-fully democratized presidential selection process has diminished the quality of our presidential candidates and the campaigns they run, whether the turn to demagoguery that the Founders feared has materialized, what the consequences of our presidential selection process have been for American government, and whether it would be valuable to rethink our wholehearted commitment to popular election of the President.