Intra-Party Democracy Beyond the Nation State? Causes and Consequences of the Introduction of Primary Elections Within the Party of European Socialists

The resolution ‘Selecting our common candidate in 2014’, adopted by the Party of European Socialists (PES), opens the selection process of its candidate for the next European Commission Presidency to members. As such, it constitutes the very first concrete initiative to introduce ‘primary elections’ at the EU level. Which are the main causes and theoretical consequences of introducing primary elections in political parties at European level (PPELs)? This paper first proposes an analysis of the rationales that have led the Party of European Socialists to introduce an EU-wide primary. Traditional explanations of the enhancement of the inclusiveness of selection methods are tested against the specificities of political parties at European level. By focusing on the extent to which considerations regarding intra-party democracy apply to the case at hand, the study is mainly concerned with the distribution of power within the organisational structures of the party (LeDuc,Niemi&Norris,2002). Second, regarding the consequences, we find the four dimensions highlighted by Hazan & Rahat (2010) to evaluate the functioning of leader and candidate selection methods to be only partially relevant, because of the predominance of members within PPELs (Bardi,1994;Joksic,2009). Indeed, the ‘party on the ground’ (Katz & Mair, 1993) is essentially composed by national political parties and therefore the linkage between voters, representatives and parties is based on a unique dynamic. Hence, we argue that ‘competition’ might translate in a greater control of dominant coalitions. ‘Representation’ and ‘responsiveness’ are questioned due to the deficiencies in the aggregating function of political parties in EU decision-making (Lord,2010). ‘Participation’ will greatly depend on the national parties’ internal-decision making process. The paper thus suggests, through a critical assessment of existing theoretical frameworks and taking into account methodological and conceptual constrains associated with EU-wide primary elections, that the process significantly enhances the role of members.