About Electoral Reform in the United States: Proposals for Combating Polarization and Extremism

In the midst of the political ugliness that has become part of our everyday reality, are there steps that can be taken to counter polarization and extremism—practical steps that are acceptable across the political spectrum? To answer that question, starting from the premise that the way our political processes are designed inevitably creates incentives for certain styles of politics and candidates, the Task Force on American Electoral Reform spent two years exploring alternative ideas for reforming key aspects of the US electoral process. The results of their work are presented in this essential book.

Larry Diamond is Mosbacher Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Edward B. Foley is Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law and director of Election Law program in the Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University. Richard H. Pildes is Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law in the School of Law, New York University.

The Task Force on American Electoral Reform was formed in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol aimed at disrupting the counting of votes in the 2020 presidential election. The purpose of the task force was to consider possible institutional reforms to elections in the United States that would diminish extremism and polarization and hence the potential for future existential threats to American democracy. The guiding premise of the task force has been that the current institutional rules enable politically extreme actors to achieve electoral success to a greater degree than voters harbor extremist views. In other words, the current system enhances rather than reduces the voice and power of extreme candidates and factions. And this also makes our politics and governing institutions more polarized and less amenable to compromise. Our goal has been to identify reforms that could reverse the overrepresentation of extremists and ease polarization. The task force consisted of thirty-one political scientists, law professors, and other scholars.