ABSTRACT
Competition for control of public offices is essential to popular government because it identifies men in relation to public issues and enables the voter to make his vote for a candidate an indication of the things that he wants his government to do. Political activity which is directed toward elections must serve two ends. This chapter asserts that voting is the critical act in a participative democracy, and that the electorate must be inclusive. In trichotomizing the voters of the United States, it purposely oversimplifies their motivations and overstated their independence to make clear an analysis of the political behavior which seems to be fundamentally correct. The constitutional requirement that the President and Vice President be chosen by special electors, and the custom of permitting a statewide victory of one party to capture all of that state's electoral votes, is the electoral formalism most likely to impeach the validity of the critical electoral thesis.
