GRADUATING FROM THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

McIntee gives a comprehensive critique of the Electoral College that includes a consideration of its mathematical failings.

McIntee observes that the Electoral College is not only “peculiar,” but also “immensely unpopular,” and yet it has managed to endure as an American institution since the nation’s inception. Its longevity seems partly due to a mythology that has enshrouded it, a set of misconceptions the author swiftly but rigorously dismantles. This baroque system was not, despite insistence to the contrary, created to protect the representative power of smaller states or rural parts of the country, nor does it do so. Nor was it designed in order to enshrine slavery or to discourage the popular vote. Rather, it was the result of confusion regarding the nature of democracy, more specifically who gets to vote and how. Yet according to McIntee, the Electoral College is ineffective and obsolete—it is unacceptably chaotic, often undermines democratic representation and proportionality, and does not encourage candidates to aim for politically or regionally broad appeal: These are all issues McIntee handles with clarity. Also, he furnishes a remarkably concise history of the Electoral College and its shifting permutations. The author is especially astute when appraising the Electoral College’s “basic mathematical properties” (he is a mathematician by training). Further, this is a genuinely thoughtful study and not a political polemic: “The fact is that we don’t actually know what is the best way to elect a president....We don’t honestly know how American voters will behave either in the short term or the long term when faced with an entirely different voting system.” The only failing of this otherwise edifying work is its neglect of deeper philosophical arguments in favor of the Electoral College and pertaining to the nature of federal republicanism—one can see this in his lack of serious analysis of the Federalist Papers. Nevertheless, this book remains a vital contribution to an important national debate.

An analytically incisive account of the Electoral College’s foibles.