Abstract
The presidential nominating contest of 2008 resurrected an earlier debate about the democratic impact of the main institutional alternatives for delegate selection. This time, however, the debate came packaged with a major 'natural experiment' comparing the impact of primaries versus caucuses, courtesy of the Democratic Party of Texas which actually used both institutions on the same day to select different parts of the Texas delegation. Evidence from their simultaneous use suggests that the power of strong racial and ethnic attachments is not much influenced by the choice of institutions. Yet the same evidence suggests that the power of social class and class position is powerfully influenced by just such a choice. This result appears to present a particularly sharp dilemma for the self-conscious party of the less advantaged, the Democrats.
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