A Badly Flawed Election: Debating Bush V. Gore, the Supreme Court, and American Democracy

by Ronald Dworkin (Editor)

Dworkin, an important liberal analyst, has assembled a distinguished cast of legal scholars and historians to debate the consequences of the flawed election of 2000.

344 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Ronald Dworkin, QC, FBA was an American philosopher of law. He was a Jeremy Bentham Professor of Law and Philosophy at University College London, Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law at New York University, and has taught previously at Yale Law School and the University of Oxford. An influential contributor to both philosophy of law and political philosophy, Dworkin received the 2007 Holberg International Memorial Prize in the Humanities for "his pioneering scholarly work" of "worldwide impact." His theory of law as integrity is amongst the most influential contemporary theories about the nature of law.

Reviews

[Mark Schnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems like an indispensable reference resource on the history of the 2000 Election. Although my opinion of the court case did not change, I became aware of the sheer ingenuity of alleged Constitutional interpretation that can be brought to bear to achieve a highly partisan judicial result.

To put it succinctly, the Supreme Court acted as a sports referee who at some point in the game, simply holds the ball until time runs out. (Not my analogy.)

Numerous authors make contributions in this book, so there is a fair offering of different points of view. The final chapter offers some interesting perspectives on whether the Electoral College should be modified or abolished.

A good companion book might be Elections and Decisions, which delves into implications if Kenneth Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. ,