Jefferson introduced an elective system of study and opposed the granting of degrees as "artificial embellishments".
Our great republic has been the only example in the world of a regular and orderly transfer of governmental succession by the elective system.
Some critics would eventually condemn what they considered to be the excesses of the free elective system and the extreme departmentalization of research and curricula.
It is true that the elective system for America's upper chamber is to blame for the characteristic gridlock of its government.
Indeed, a special A.B.A. commission advocates the use of credible, deliberative bodies to screen applicants for state judgeships regardless of whether an appointive or elective system is in place.
Within a few years he modified Eliot's "free elective" system; devised general examinations to offset the effect of fragmented, isolated courses; and set up a tutorial plan to supplement undergraduate lectures.
The compact was hardly democratic, since it called for rule by the elite, but it established an elective system and a basis for limited consent of the governed as the source of authority.
At Columbia, Barnard changed his views, urging the college to expand its curriculum and introduce the elective system into the last two undergraduate years, to best develop advanced scholarship leading to graduate and professional education.
The growing desire for an elective system, for a substantial number of academic specializations, and for differentiation of academic degrees, contributed strongly to the differentiation of the social sciences.
