National Party Rules and Delegate Selection in the Republican Party

Abstract

The Democratic party's quadrennial exercises in reform of the delegate selection process have caused political scientists and journalists to focus their attention on the Democratic party and to ignore the character and impact of the Republican rules. While the Democrats have been going through major revisions of their rules every four years since the disastrous 1968 convention, the Republicans have followed a quite different strategy. They have sought to maintain the basic procedures and party structure which had evolved prior to the era of the McGovern-Fraser Commission, and they have directed their efforts toward supporting federal, state, and local candidates and party organizations.