Synopses & Reviews
The Unfinished Election of 2000 gathers an outstanding group of constitutional and political scholars to address key facts of the most recent election and to show how the events of 2000 fit into a larger historical narrative of American politics and law.
Perhaps no other election in U.S. history has left so many disturbing questions about how our political system works from the very basic mechanics of vote casting to the conclusion, which many believe to have been the result of a politicized U.S. Supreme Court.
The Unfinished Election of 2000 is the first book to attempt a true historical judgment and to give readers a better understanding of the election that confused and infuriated the country.
Review
"[S]cholarly but lively essays....These essays explore systemic foibles in U.S. politics with an eye toward wider contexts and deeper causes....This fine multidisciplinary response could have a lasting impact on how Americans understand the 2000 election." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Reader-friendly...it does move our understanding of the 2000 vote beyond the 'urgent trivia' of classic campaign books." Washington Post
Review
"If you read only one book about the American electoral ordeal of 2000, make it this one." David M. Kennedy, Stanford University
Synopsis
The Unfinished Election of 2000 gathers America's leading historians, political scientists, and constitutional lawyers to examine the strange and unprecedented events of the 2000 election. Together, these essays offer an election book very different from the ones we are too familiar with: not a journalistic account of campaigning and media strategy but a reflective assessment of the strangest election in modern American history.
About the Author
Jack N. Rakove is the Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University and lives in Palo Alto, California. Pamela S. Karlan is Montgomery Professor of Public Law at Stanford Law School and lives in Palo Alto. Larry Kramer is Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and lives in New York City. Alex Keyssar is Matthew G. Stirling, Jr., Professor of History and Social Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Stephen Holmes is Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and lives in New York City. Henry Brady is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and lives in Oakland, California. John Cooper is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Dangling Questions
Pt. 1 The Politics of a Presidential Election
1 "The Leaving It": The Election of 2000 at the Bar of History 3
2 Trust the People: Political Party Coalitions and the 2000 Election 39
3 The Right to Vote and Election 2000 75
Pt. 2 The Court and the Constitution
4 The Supreme Court in Politics 105
5 Equal Protection: Bush v. Gore and the Making of a Precedent 159
6 The E-College in the E-Age 201
Afterword: Can a Coin-Toss Election Trigger a Constitutional Earthquake? 235
Index 253
About the Contributors 265