title: How to get Html.DropDownList() to retain selected value on postback?
body: <p>A select element is generated using the following code in an MVC4 view</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.DropDownList(
  "abPrintYearsMode",
  new List&lt;SelectListItem&gt;{
    new SelectListItem { Text = "Lifetime", Value = "1" },
    new SelectListItem { Text = "Manual", Value = "2" }
  },
  new { @class = "required" }
  )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which renders the following HTML</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;select class="required" id="abPrintYearsMode" name="abPrintYearsMode"&gt;
    &lt;option value="1"&gt;Lifetime&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;option value="2"&gt;Manual&lt;/option&gt;
  &lt;/select&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How do I get the select element to retain the value selected by the user on a postback? Currently, the topmost option "Lifetime" is always selected after a postback even when the user select "Manual" option #2.</p>