ABSTRACT
There is a connection between the transformation in the power of the presidency and the democratization of the presidential selection process. There are several characteristics of our current political landscape that would have astonished the men who wrote the Constitution. The first, of course, is the democratized presidential selection process, something that most of the Founders would have contemplated with undisguised horror. The second is the power and prominence of the federal government. Even men like Alexander Hamilton, who in his time favored a strong central role on financial matters, would have been surprised by a national government as deeply involved in issues such as health, education, housing, and social welfare and with the power to fund its operations by levying taxes on income. The third, a product of the first two changes, is the transformation of the American presidency from a relatively restricted office with limited powers to the dominant office in the land.
