ABSTRACT
Every four years, the American people become witness to political hysteria. For months before the actual presidential election, we are inundated by newspapers, magazines, television programs and commercials, party conventions, and innumerable speeches in which candidates try to convince us why they, and the party sponsoring them, are indispensable to our lives. Individual candidates-and their families-are subjected to microscopic examinations of their appearance and character and to grueling campaigns in which their every action and declaration are subject to public scrutiny and criticism. Why do candidates submit to it and promise us the moon? Why do we believe them and vote them into office? Most of the arguments and promises are forgotten-or are impossible to deliver-a few months into the new administration, and we know it. The candidates undergo this trial by fire because they want the power and perquisites that go with political office. And we voters put them into office because somebody has to lead the ship of state. But despite the malfunctions of the system
and the frailty of individual politicians, the political system under which Americans live has allowed for a peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next, something that many other political systems have not been able to achieve. One need only point out the frequent coups and near-revolutions in Africa, or the tragic histories of countries such as Haiti and the former Yugoslavia, or note the instability even in parliamentary democracies such as Italy, where the government collapses every few months, to be forced to admit that, badly or not, the system at least works. How, exactly, does it work?
