2nd Normal Form Question

Now the question is whether this relation is in 2NF? What confuses me is that some books say the following:
"Note that when a 1NF table has no composite candidate keys (candidate keys consisting of more than one attribute), the table is automatically in 2NF."

Now, let's evaluate the functional dependencies for this relation. Year -> Winner Name
Year -> Winner Votes
Winner Name -> Party
Winner Name -> Home State

The definition for 2NF is as follows: "A 1NF table is in 2NF if and only if, given any candidate key and any attribute that is not a constituent of a candidate key, the non-key attribute depends upon the whole of the candidate key rather than just a part of it." (Wikipedia) which is consistent with the books I'm reading on databases.

Now as this relation doesn't have a composite primary key, it follows that it is automatically in 2NF. But as we can see two non-prime attributes (party & home state) are functionally dependent only a subset of the primary key (the subset being the empty set). This must imply that it is not in 2NF.

My question is, is this relation is 2NF or not?

Thanks,
g Received on Fri Feb 08 2008 - 17:21:54 CET