The Direct Primary and Party Structure: A Study of State Legislative Nominations

Some analysts blame the direct primary for the supposedly parlous state of the American party system; others assert that nominating procedures do not affect parties at all. The literature abounds with more or less judicious, and conflicting, estimates of the consequences of the primary mode of nomination. In fact, our present knowledge provides little basis for confident appraisal of the effects of the direct primary. This article reports an attack on a small part of the problem, viz., state legislative nominations in two-party states, by explicit methods of analysis, whose use may both make possible a minor substantive contribution as well as demonstrate the appalling amount of work necessary for a provisional solution of even the smallest aspect of the broad problem. To cope with questions about the consequences of particular institutional arrangements requires both a working theory and a means of observation to determine whether it fits the facts. For lack of a better concept, the problem of the effects of the primary method of nomination may be regarded as a special case of the broader question of the nature of the interaction between formal and informal organization.