The Democrats' Undemocratic System

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It's not that one system is demonstrably right and the other obviously wrong. The preponderant Republican method arguably gives too much of an advantage to the dominant candidate, the Democratic approach too little.

But the inherent flaws in the Democrats' system are exacerbated by the inadequately democratic institution of superdelegates, the elected officials, members of the Democratic National Committee and other party luminaries who can choose according to their own preference.

It's not unreasonable to carve out a special role for party leaders. The idea of superdelegates, introduced in 1982, was to invest elected officials in the eventual nominee and prevent the party from veering too far off course in its selection (see: George McGovern in 1972).

But the number of superdelegates -- 796, or 19 percent of all delegates -- combined with proportional representation creates a potentially toxic interaction.

As Devine and Corrado explained in 1991, "the primary consequences of the move to proportional representation is that the superdelegates now stand as the only bloc of delegates in which it may be possible to build an extraordinary delegate margin."

As intended, superdelegates gave a boost to Walter Mondale over Gary Hart in 1984; they helped cement Dukakis's lead in 1988. But there is a difference between bringing closure and determining outcomes. Once the nominee is selected, whenever that may be, the party needs to reassess rules that are shaping up to be bad for both Democrats and democracy.

marcusr@washpost.com