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Political Convention, in U.S. politics, a meeting of delegates of a political party at the local, state, or national level for the purpose of selecting candidates for office and formulating party policy. The conventions, as representative organs of the parties, may also elect executive committees of the parties and adopt rules governing party organization. In practice they also act as rallies for the election campaigns that follow.
Before the institution of conventions in the 1830s, parties selected their candidates and decided on policy by means of informal party caucuses. Conventions were introduced to eliminate the abuses of the caucus system; they were expected, by their open and public conduct of business, to be more democratic and less amenable to control by party bosses and machines. As it happens, however, most of the real business of conventions has been conducted in informal meetings of various delegates and leaders; activity on the floor of the convention has usually been merely a reflection of behind-the-scenes decisions.
At the national level, parties hold conventions at four-year intervals to nominate candidates for president and vice president and to adopt a national platform for the party. At first, voting strength in both Republican and Democratic conventions was apportioned among the states in accordance with their electoral-college vote, usually two convention votes for each of the state’s senators and representatives in the Congress; and this was still a major factor in apportionment in the 1960s. In preparation for its 1916 and later conventions, however, the Republican Party adopted rules curtailing the representation of congressional districts where the Republican vote was light. Both parties later adopted the practice of giving “bonus” votes to the states carried by the party in a previous election.
Each convention commences business by attending to such necessary preliminaries as the election of a convention chairman, adoption of the rules that govern its proceedings, election of a rules committee, and checking of credentials of delegates through a committee designated for the purpose.
Thereafter, party platforms, prepared by a special committee, are debated and voted upon by the delegates. Nominations of candidates are the work of the convention as a whole. Candidates, usually those who have entered the presidential race through preconvention primaries and campaigns, are placed in nomination with eulogistic nominating and seconding speeches; noisy demonstrations are then staged by the supporters of each nominee, together with bands and marchers hired for the occasion, parading up and down the aisles (such demonstrations have increasingly been the target of criticism); and eventually the convention votes. The roll of states is called alphabetically, and the vote of each state delegation is reported by its chairman; if necessary, the delegation is polled, each delegate being asked to openly declare his vote. Although many contests have been settled on the first ballot, the taking of several ballots is common.
The nomination of the vice presidential candidate follows the selection of the presidential standard-bearer. Frequently the vice presidential choice has been determined by the presidential nominee in consultation with other party leaders. At the final session of the convention, the selected nominees appear to make acceptance speeches that usually spell out the major platforms of the candidates for the election campaign.
Among political conventions, the greatest attention is paid to the national conventions, which are now nationally televised. Local and state conventions perform functions similar to those at the national levels, but the procedures and the rules governing their composition and proceedings vary from state to state. The tendency has been towards greater unifdrmity in such procedures.
The national conventions have been among the most criticized of political institutions throughout their history. Among the proposals to reform the current system, the most prominent and seriously considered is the suggestion to permit some form of national presidential primary.
