Our website is a unique platform where students can share their papers in a matter of giving an example of the work to be done. If you find papers
matching your topic, you may use them only as an example of work. This is 100% legal. You may not submit downloaded papers as your own, that is cheating. Also you
should remember, that this work was alredy submitted once by a student who originally wrote it.
This paper “The Iowa Caucuses: First Tests of Presidential Aspiration” discusses the importance of the Iowa caucus in the light of both its history and the present perspective. Moreover, the importance of caucus shall also be explained by its five theories…
Download full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing
Extract of sample "The Iowa Caucuses: First Tests of Presidential Aspiration"
The Iowa Caucuses: First Tests of Presidential Aspiration
INTRODUCTION:
This paper discusses the importance of Iowa caucus in the light of both its historical and the present perspective. Moreover, the importance of caucus shall also be explained through its five theories. Furthermore, the paper would explain the working process of the Iowa caucus so that the importance of the topic is highlighted.
CONCEPT AND HISTORY OF IOWA CAUCUS:
Elucidating the importance of the Iowa caucus would be unfruitful without first explaining the actual meaning and the history of the Iowa caucus itself. Iowa is a state in the United States of America which has many different counties. Caucus is a meeting of members, supporters or workers of a party. Caucus has generally been attached with the political meetings. If both the terms are looked in one perspective, the meaning of the word becomes ‘the gathering of the counties of Iowa for political discussions’. Iowa has ninety nine counties and thus there are ninety nine conventions. The process for election in Iowa is significantly different from the other states of America. While the other states elect the candidate by the routine process of polling through the polling stations, election in Iowa takes place when the people of Iowa gather in places like schools, hospitals, churches or public libraries. Here, the discussion is held regarding each party’s and the candidate’s position and stance. This is known as ‘The caucus’. Now, the people decide who is the worthy candidate and they vote for him/her accordingly. This is not a direct voting but rather an indirect voting method where the successful candidates get a head start as far as their chances in the elections are concern.
The history of the Iowa caucus dates back to 1970s when the caucus was first brought to media attention (Redlawsk, 2010). In 1976 Jimmy Carter was able to secure the confidence of the Iowa caucus and thus also secured a candidateship for the presidency and finally the presidency itself. From this point onwards, the Iowa caucus was able to get the attention of all those especially who were looking for a place in the presidency position. But it is not as though winning in the Iowa caucus would ensure a guaranteed win in the actual elections as well. There are examples which can strengthen this argument. In 1988, the people who actually won the nomination from their parties to compete for the presidency did not win the Iowa caucus.
It is now not tough to visualize that the primary reason which has been the signifying aspect of the Iowa caucus has been its presidency nominations. As Skipper mentions in his book that if a person is dreaming about becoming the president, he/she is dreaming about Iowa (Skipper 2010). People are of the view that the candidates, who get the confidence from the Iowa caucus, have a resilient chance for the actual nomination for the presidency. Thus, both the Democratic and the Republican Party give special attention to the results of the Iowa caucus. Furthermore, the media has been a crucial factor in magnifying the importance of the Iowa caucus.
Presently, the situation of the Iowa caucus is such that although President Obama is currently unopposed, but he still campaigned from the Democratic side in the caucus. This shows the weight that is still placed on the caucus.
IMPORTANCE OF THE IOWA CAUCUS:
Once the definition and the concept of the Iowa caucus are clear, the importance of the Iowa caucus can be further illustrated. The importance of the caucus can be viewed as five distinct measures. Firstly, the candidate gets a clear directive as to what should be his/her future as a nominee. As Michael Shear says, "One reason the Hawkeye State retains its influence in the nominating fight”. As it is mentioned earlier, the caucus is more than just voting, people would ideally want to meet the person who is campaigning for the nomination and the aspiring nominee also takes the view of the caucus seriously thus, making the Iowa caucus, a direction of the future. Consequently, the first point is a step towards the second point which states that those who fail to live up to the caucus’s expectations, often fail to win the right for the nomination as well. As stated by Rachael Weiner, "there are three tickets out of Iowa — 'first-class, coach, and standby”. This is further clarified by Christopher Rantsin an interview with CNN confirming that Iowa is of significance because he considers it worth noticing. Moreover, the caucus can ideally be a decisive push in the race to presidency. This is mentioned by Elizabeth Hartfield as well. He says where Iowa, “truly gains its importance is in terms of momentum”. Suppose if two candidates are running head to head and one of the candidates get a clear majority in the Iowa caucus, then this candidate has a strong chance for the final win as well. Furthermore, the caucus gives the Mid-Western states affair representation in the race to presidency in the environment which is coastal dominant, as stated by John Lauk. He says, “the coastal media dominates the cultural and political discourse." Since there are no regional primaries, "Iowa serves as a proxy for the wider Midwest and helps to make the presidential selection process more representative of the interests of Middle America."
The question is however, should the significant amount of weight be placed in the caucus which does not account for a representation from the entire country. In fact, the representation of the entire Iowa is not accounted as well. This argument is supported by the figures of 2008 in which only four percent of the population of Iowa which further means that point four percent of the population of the United States actually attended the caucus. Brian Montopoli is of the view that “It's absurd that we give a small number of Iowans such ‘extraordinary power’”.
But the answer to this question lies in the fact that the presidency is an issue which works on public opinion. This opinion is shaped by a number of factors, a major one of which is the caucus. People give credit to this caucus and take decisions on the basis of these caucuses. Also, the media has given it so much attention that now, it is imperative for a candidate to gain the support in the Iowa caucus.
CONCLUSION:
The Iowa caucus, which is a pre-election nomination process, has been in limelight because of the presidential nomination that it has produced through its process of discussions and debates. The importance of the Iowa caucus are that candidates get a clear direction for their political future, the worthy candidates get a chance of getting to the top and the Mid-Western states get a representation in the nomination process.
References:
1. Skipper, J., C., 2010, The Iowa caucuses: first tests of presidential aspiration, 1972-2008. Mc Farland Company, Inc., Publishers.
2. Redlawsk, P., D., Tolbert, T., C. and Donovan, T., 2010, Why Iowa?: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nomination Process. The University of Chicago Press.
3. Shear, M., D., 2012, On Caucus Night, a Time Commitment, The Caucus. The New York Times.
4. Weiner, R., 2011, Why (and how) Iowa votes first, The Fix. The Washington Post.
5. Hamby, P., 2012, Iowa caucuses: Pulling the weeds from Republican field, Election Center. CNN.
6. Hartfield, E., 2011, What’s a Caucus? And Why Jan. 3 Iowa Caucuses Are Important in 2012, ABC News.
7. Lauk, J., 2011, The Case for Iowa. The Claremount Institute.
8. Mayer, W., G., and Busch, A., 2004, The front-loading problem in presidential nominations, The Brooking Institution.
9. Montopoli, B., 2012, The overhyped, unrepresentative Iowa caucuses, Political Hotsheet. CBS News.
Read
More
Share:
CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Iowa Caucuses: First Tests of Presidential Aspiration
This paper 'presidential Nomination Races' will discuss major aspirants for the Republican Party nominations in the 1876 and 1996 presidential races.... The paper will also compare the difference between the two nominations processes used in candidate selection....
...
From the paper "Government and Politics - presidential Election", parties in the USA range themselves under certain 'cream of the crop', whom they abide by a sort of intuition, which is the effect of habits contracted elsewhere.... The election race in some countries including the United Kingdom takes just a few weeks, but US presidential runners undertake a political epic, negotiating 'primaries', 'party conventions' and an 'Electoral College' system down the way (Bennett 2005, pg 270)....
This report talks that many studies have examined the effectiveness of bedside examination for detecting aspiration.... The aim of this essay is to evaluate if there are any bedside assessment techniques, which can detect aspiration, and are sufficiently specific and sensitive.... This essay stresses that fiberoptic endoscopic examination of swallowing is highly sensitive for detecting aspiration but cannot provide all the details of swallow physiology....
Golledge and Stimson (1996: 473) quite appropriately describe 'residential satisfaction' as the meeting point of the residential achievement with the residential aspiration.... The essay "Residential Satisfaction" focuses on the issues of satisfaction with the place where the person resides presenting a certain state of happiness gained by a person in all respects to his/her residence....
Running Head: CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS Citizens United versus Federal Election Commission Essay on how to improve the PresidentialElection ProcessThe American system of presidential elections includes a series of presidential primary elections and caucuses.... The appointed delegates then select the presidential nominees basing on the party's by-laws for their parties as they move towards November General Elections.... This system of undertaking caucuses and presidential primaries is faced with shortcomings when some states hold their primary elections and caucuses earlier than others leading to biased allocation of delegates in each state....
The paper 'The 2012 Obama presidential campaign' focuses on the four stages of campaign activity, namely, surfacing, nomination, consolidation, and election.... The very first communication activity they engaged in was a promotional video depicting Obama supporters mobilizing for the re-election campaign....
This study ''Noninvasive Pulmonary Function tests'' investigates various noninvasive pulmonary function tests.... Various pathologies of breathing apparatus have also been briefly discussed so as to help the reader to understand the need for the pulmonary function tests.... Different techniques for carrying out pulmonary tests have been discussed and their advantages as well as disadvantages have been given.... Pulmonary function tests (abbreviated PFT), which are also known as lung functions tests, are tests which are used so as to provide measures of gas exchange, lung volumes, flow rates, and respiratory muscle function....
While it can be said that this is a tight presidential race without a likely winner at the moment, the same should not be said for Clinton.... That is because it is not her first time to vie for the American Presidency having already lost to Obama in the 2008 Democrats Primaries.... This paper is an analysis of the Hillary's likely political fate as Democrat candidate during the primaries in the states of iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina....
10 Pages(2500 words)Essay
sponsored ads
Save Your Time for More Important Things
Let us write or edit the term paper on your topic
"The Iowa Caucuses: First Tests of Presidential Aspiration"
with a personal 20% discount.