Superdelegates were introduced in 1982. There are 4,763 pledged delegates, and then there are around 712 super delegates (15% of the total delegates). These include every elected Democratic office-holder--yes, Bernie Sanders is a superdelegate. There are all 44 Democratic senators and 188 Democratic Congresspersons; as well as 18 governors; then there are the DNC members--state party chairs and vice chairs from all 50 states and national committeemen and women. And then there are former high-ranking officials (Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, etc.). There's a list of all the superdelegates at the link:
There are basically three ways one can become a superdelegate, according to the DNC Charter.
The first is through holding political office. All Democratic governors, senators, and House representatives automatically get a spot as a superdelegate. This is why Bernie Sanders will have a spot as a Vermont superdelegate. Superdelegate Bernie Sanders will presumably pledge to support presidential candidate Bernie Sanders — just like President Barack Obama pledged his own superdelegate support to himself in 2008.
The second is through being a DNC member. There are 20 ways in which you can be a member of the DNC, most of which involve being a high-ranking member of a DNC leadership group. (Details in Article 3, Section 2 of the DNC charter.)
The third is being an especially distinguished member of the party. This is a small group, only about 20 people or so. If you're a current or former president, vice president, Senate leader, House leader, or DNC chair, then you're a superdelegate. This is why Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Al Gore, Walter Mondale, Howard Dean, and George Mitchell are superdelegates.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/2/22/11070364/list-all-superdelegatesPrimaries are the way in which the political parties choose their candidates, culminating in a convention for each party in which delegates vote. They are not general elections (too many, I think, don't understand this concept). I think that people dissatisfied with the nominating process should work to form their own parties, with their own primaries and conventions. In fact, they do. There's the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, etc., who decide with far less general participation who their candidates will be. There used to be (and for all I know still is) a Democratic Socialist Party. Primaries have become increasingly open over the past few decades, allowing people from outside the party to participate in deciding the party's nominee. It seems only right to me that a party, in return for this openness, should be able to have some representation in their own nominating process. How would the Green Party like it if outsiders flooded its process and started voting to install a candidate that did not adhere to their general platform, or who had never been aligned with their party? I can tell you, what would ensue would be far less democratic than what occurs in the Democratic Party system.
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