Voting at the Political Fault Line : California's Experiment with the Blanket Primary

California's adoption of the blanket primary in 1996 presented a unique natural experiment on the impact that the election rules have on politics.

Billed as a measure that would increase voter participation and end idealogical polarization, Proposition 198 placed Calfornia voters once again on the frontier of political reform.

Employing a variety of data sources and methodologies, the contributiors to voting at the Political Fault Line apply their wide-ranging expertise to understand how this change in political institutions affected electoral behaviour and outcomes.

This authoriatative study analyzes the consequences of California's experiment with the blanket primary, including the incidence of, motivations behind, and persistence of crossover voting; the behaviour of candidates and donors; the effects on candidate positions and party platforms; and the consequences for women, minorities, and minor-party candidates.