As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presented a lecture titled "Isn’t There a Better Way to Nominate Presidential Candidates?" by Brookings senior fellow in governance studies, Elaine Kamarck.

This lecture examines why every four years the major political parties undertake a drawn-out, confusing series of primaries, caucuses, and conventions to determine their presidential nominees. Over the years, a number of rational and more orderly ways to select presidential nominees have been proposed but none of these ideas have been adopted. Brookings Institution scholar Elaine Kamarck, who has written extensively on the topic and served as a presidential and presidential campaign advisor, addresses these topics and more.