Charles Adrian and the Study of Nonpartisan Elections

Abstract

The Progressives believed that political parties, especially those in the cities during the first part of the past century, undermined the quality of democracy in the country. The patronage that held the parties together led to corruption and inefficiencies. While some of the reforms from the Progressive Era, such as the secret ballot and direct primary, have been adopted almost universally, Charles Adrian wrote about one, the nonpartisan ballot, that was adopted in many places, but not all. More than three fourths of municipal elections and about half of all U.S. elections use the nonpartisan ballot. This constitutes a huge quasi-experiment in the impact of political parties on governance and representation. As most political scientists agree that competitive political parties are necessary for healthy representative democracy and the centrality of political parties for voter decision making, this experiment is interesting and potentially significant for understanding the role parties play in elections and policy making.