This concern is misplaced. Individual voters don’t have the same sort of rights in nominations that they have in general elections. In general elections, all citizens should have equal voice because they have equal “ownership” of the polity. So it makes sense to keep the burdens of and barriers to voting low. (There’s a good argument to be made that the barriers should be much lower than they currently are in the United States.)
But party nominations are different. They are how parties govern themselves, and the parties should be trusted to know what works best for themselves. Hasen writes, for example, that caucuses are poor organizational tools for the parties. That may be true—but shouldn’t it be up to the party to decide? It should be up to the parties to decide whether they would prefer a relatively high-turnout delegate selection scheme that would put more influence with mass electorates or a system that empowers smaller, more dedicated groups of party activists. The parties are also best positioned to figure out which influences they prefer (including second-order influences; mass electorates give more power to the media, which parties might not like). More to the point, it’s the parties who have everything at stake here, so they should be the ones to choose.
Yes, Caucuses Are Unfair. No, We Shouldn’t Mind.
via tnr.com
