Political parties are essential institutions of democracy. They facilitate political participation, draw up manifestos for government and in healthy systems, act as stabilising forces. But their principal function is to win elections, and so candidate selection forms a fundamental part of that task.
For much of the US republic, parties really did select their nominees in proverbial smoked-filled rooms. A primary system eventually developed in the 20th century, but even then candidates did not necessarily need to win them. Indeed, vice president Hubert Humphrey failed to contest a single primary in 1968, but still won the Democratic nomination over Senator Eugene McCarthy.
That all changed in the 1970s, when both the Democratic and Republican parties initiated reforms that gave more voters a direct role in selecting the nominee. The results have been, well, mixed. The new system got off to something of a rocky start for the Democrats, following the catastrophic performance by George McGovern in 1972. But the system has also produced generational political talents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. For more on the history, check out to this excellent podcast mini-series from FiveThirtyEight.
For what it's worth, this process has been mirrored in the UK. Between 1922 and 1981, only members of the Parliamentary Labour Party were eligible to vote for the leader. While prior to 1965, Conservative leaders simply 'emerged' following discussion amongst Tory MPs and others, a system described by Professor Paul Webb as “an opaque process of negotiation and ‘soundings’ involving senior party figures”.
For good or ill, democratisation has fundamentally changed the nature of parties and in particular who comes to lead them. So I find it fascinating that as parties are said to be hollowing out, and power appears to be flowing from insiders and elites to ordinary (or let's face it, rather odd) members, the Democratic Party seems to be fighting back. And not for the first time.
In early 2020, after Joe Biden won the South Carolina Primary, the Democrats essentially decided he should be the nominee. Following Biden's victory in the Palmetto State, two centrist challengers, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. The reason was clear: the party thought that Biden, not Bernie Sanders, was best placed to defeat Donald Trump.
A little over four years later, the party has decided again. This time that Biden is not the best candidate to defeat Trump, that he in fact cannot win, and that he should therefore step aside. Here is a political party doing its job. In contrast to the Republicans, who have for the third successive occasion nominated Trump, a historically weak candidate.
Whether this will be enough to win in November remains to be seen. Vice president Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed on Sunday, would not be as strong a candidate as a popular governor of a swing state, such as Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan or Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. Still, her likely presence at the top of the ticket is evidence that the Democrats still understand that the job of parties is to win elections.
And if nothing else, that the second law of American politics endures: Nancy Pelosi always wins.
