The inevitable party: why attempts to kill the party system fail and how they weaken democracy

This work is a study of antiparty reforms and why they fail. Numerous reform movements over the past century have designated parties as the enemy of democracy, and they have found a willing ally in the American people in their efforts to rein in and occasionally root out parties. The text investigates several of these antiparty reform efforts - from open primaries to campaign finance restrictions to nonpartisan legislatures - using legislative roll call votes, campaign donations patterns, and extensive interviews with local political elites

Why do anti-party reforms, from campaign finance reform to nonpartisan legislatures, tend to fail? The Inevitable Party looks at the structure and behavior of parties to understand why they are so resilient, and examines how various attempts to undermine them just end up hurting democracy.