The All Caucuses/Conventions Model

In 2000, ninety percent of the delegates to the two major party national conventions were selected via primaries. However, the presidential nominating process was not always dominated by primaries. The first presidential primary did not take place until 1912, and primaries were not used by a majority of states until 1976 (Kendall 1998). Figure 26 depicts the growth of presidential primaries since 1960.

Advantages

As the report of the Brock Commission explained:

Delegates to the national convention from states with caucus or convention systems are not selected on the initial voting day. Most caucus states select national convention delegates at congressional district conventions or state conventions, which are held weeks or months after the initial precinct caucuses. Since the several stages of a caucus/convention process makes it inherently more spread out than a primary process, a change to holding only caucuses and conventions may mitigate the effect of front-loading.

When a voter participates in a primary, the election process takes just a few minutes as the voter marks the ballot with his or her choices. However, the time commitment for a caucus is much greater: a precinct caucus can last several hours as the voters attending debate the selection of delegates to the next level caucus or convention, and also debate party issue positions. Because of the larger time commitment, caucus participants tend to be more active party members. (Brock 2000, 33-34)

Disadvantages

Because of the larger time commitment, fewer people are involved in the caucus/convention process. The trend of the 20th century was to open the political system to participation by a greater number of citizens. This idea seeks to turn back the clock, very nearly to the 19th century, and only obliquely addresses what is essentially a scheduling problem that would be best dealt with in a straightforward manner.