Causes and Consequences of Primaries as Instruments for Candidate Selection

Abstract

Beyond the essential identification of a common comparative framework for analysis and a theoretical model that could be applied to the cross-country and cross-time study of primary elections, in order to develop and in-depth exploration of this phenomenon in comparative perspective it is also crucial to focus on the rationales and consequences of the adoption of such peculiar selection methods. The main research questions raised by this panel are thus the following: Which are the causes of moves towards expanding the number of participants involved in candidate selection? Which are the main consequences of the adoption of primaries for selecting candidates for office on parties themselves, both internally (in organisational terms) and externally (in electoral terms)? We encourage papers that, starting from the four main dimensions of analysis identified by the literature for studying the political consequences of the adoption of primary elections, namely competition, participation, representation, and responsiveness (Hazan and Rahat, 2010), explore the impact of such instruments for choosing candidates. We encourage comparative papers and empirically informed papers dedicated to a specific theme, in particular to the consequences of primaries on party internal factionalism, on the role of members and supporters, on legislative behaviour and on party cohesion.

Title	Details
The Fight to be First: The Impact of Front-Loading on Presidential Primary Turnout in Michigan	View Paper Details
As Primaries Affect Electoral Results. France and Italy in Comparative Perspective	View Paper Details
A New Game in Town: Party Primaries in Romania and Slovakia	View Paper Details
Intra-Party Democracy Beyond the Nation State? Causes and Consequences of the Introduction of Primary Elections Within the Party of European Socialists	View Paper Details
M5S and Parlamentarie: New Instruments of Online Participation?	View Paper Details