New Paths for Selecting Political Elites: Investigating the Impact of Inclusive Candidate and Party Leader Selection Methods

275 Pages·2021·23.803 MB·English

by  Giulia Sandri and Antonella Seddone

New Paths for Selecting Political Elites
This book provides a cross-c ountry study of the consequences of the expan-
sion of intra-p arty democracy, the trend towards more inclusive methods of
selection for party candidates and leaders, and the impact of these on political
elites in terms of sociopolitical profile and patterns of careers.
It explores the link between political organizations and political elites, by
studying the role of parties in parliamentary and political selection and its
impact on the political leadership appointed. Putting an emphasis on pri-
mary elections, it analyses the party elites that emerge from those selection
processes and those democratized organizational settings. It focuses not only
on the analysis of the processes through which party elites are selected and
the consequences at the level of the party but also at the level of party elites
themselves, i.e. what impact party primaries have on the characteristics of
parties’ candidates and leaders. The book offers a theoretical, comparative,
and empirical account of the internal electoral processes of parties and their
impact on political recruitment.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites,
political parties and party systems, electoral politics, democracy, populism,
and leadership, and more broadly to comparative politics.
Giulia Sandri is Associate Professor at the European School of Political and
Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Lille, France.
Antonella Seddone is Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultures,
Politics and Society of the University of Turin, Italy.
Routledge Studies on Political Parties and Party Systems

This new series focuses on major issues affecting political parties in a broad
sense. It welcomes a wide-r ange of theoretical and methodological approaches
on political parties and party systems in Europe and beyond, including com-
parative works examining regions outside of Europe. In particular, it aims
to improve our present understanding of these topics through the exam-
ination of the crisis of political parties and challenges party organizations
face in the contemporary world, the increasing internal complexity of party
organizations in terms of regulation, funding, membership, the more frequent
presence of party system change, and the development of political parties and
party systems in under- researched countries.
Series Editors: Ingrid van Biezen, Leiden University, the Netherlands, and
Fernando Casal Bértoa, University of Nottingham, UK
Informal Politics in Post-Communist Europe
Political Parties, Clientelism and State Capture
Michal Klíma
Political Candidate Selection
Who Wins, Who Loses, and Under- Representation in the UK
Jeanette Ashe
Political Parties Abroad
A New Arena for Party Politics
Edited by Tudi Kernalegenn and Émilie van Haute
Political Incivility in the Parliamentary, Electoral and Media Arena
Crossing Boundaries
Edited by Annemarie Walter
New Paths for Selecting Political Elites
Investigating the Impact of Inclusive Candidate and Party Leader
Selection Methods
Edited by Giulia Sandri and Antonella Seddone
New Paths for Selecting

Political Elites
Investigating the Impact of Inclusive
Candidate and Party Leader Selection
Methods
Edited by Giulia Sandri and
Antonella Seddone
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Giulia Sandri and Antonella Seddone;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Giulia Sandri and Antonella Seddone to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Sandri, Giulia, editor. | Seddone, Antonella, editor.
Title: New paths for selecting political elites : investigating the impact
of inclusive candidate and party leader selection methods /
Edited by Giulia Sandri and Antonella Seddone.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Series: Routledge studies on political parties and party systems |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020054377 (print) | LCCN 2020054378 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367901417 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003022893 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Political parties–Cross-cultural studies. | Elite (Social sciences)–
Cross-cultural studies. | Elections–Cross-cultural studies. |
Government executives–Selection and appointment–Cross-cultural studies.
Classification: LCC JF2051 .N49 2021 (print) |
LCC JF2051 (ebook) | DDC 324.2/2–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054377
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054378
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 90141- 7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 00579- 9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 02289- 3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents

List of figures ix

List of tables xi

List of political parties xiii

List of contributors xviii

1 Intra- party selection methods and political elites:
new trends and consequences 1

GIULIA SANDRI AND ANTONELLA SEDDONE
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The selection of political elites: what we know so far 2
1.3 Political elites: understanding the interaction between party
organizations and leadership 5
1.4 Rationales and aims of this volume 7
1.5 Plan of the book 12
References 16
2 Choosing party leaders in Italy between personalization
and democratization 20

MARCO VALBRUZZI
2.1 Introduction 20
2.2 Varieties of party models in Italy 21
2.3 Selection methods over time 30
2.4 Demographics characteristics 37
2.5 Conclusions 41
References 43
3 Playing with fire? The organizational consequences of
party primaries in Spain 46

OSCAR BARBERÀ AND JUAN RODRÍGUEZ- TERUEL
3.1 Introduction 46
vi Contents
3.2 The organizational consequences of introducing party
primaries on the party elites’ strength 47
3.3 The introduction of party primaries in Spanish politics 50
3.4 The organizational consequences of first- time party primaries in
Spain 54
3.5 Discussion 58
3.6 Conclusions 61
References 63
4 The outcomes of party primaries: (dis)continuity in top
candidates’ political and partisan profiles 66

JAVIER MARTÍNEZ- CANTÓ AND JAVIER ASTUDILLO
4.1 Introduction 66
4.2 The theoretical debate: do primaries produce new types of
top candidates? 67
4.3 Using Spain to disentangle the role of party primaries 70
4.4 Results 75
4.5 Conclusion 78
References 80
5 Candidate selection, personalization of politics, and
political careers: insights from Italy (2006– 2016) 82

BRUNO MARINO, NICOLA MARTOCCHIA DIODATI,
AND LUCA VERZICHELLI
5.1 Introduction 82
5.2 The Italian case in a cross- time perspective 84
5.3 Candidate selection, personalization of politics, and patterns of
career: is there a connection? 88
5.4 Empirical analysis 90
5.5 Conclusions 97
References 101
6 Impact of intra- party democracy on patterns of
political career within the Pan- Hellenic Socialist
Movement(PASOK) in Greece, 2004– 2009 106

DIMITRIOS KOSMOPOULOS
6.1 Introduction 106
6.2 Intra- party democratic innovations within PASOK: towards
new patterns of candidates’ selection 108
6.3 Intra- party democracy and changing patterns of candidates’
selection 111
Contents vii
6.4 2004:The primaries as a shift? The ambivalence of
new candidates’ selection patterns 114
6.5 To what extent has the profile of MPs changed since 2004? 115
6.6 Conclusions 120
References 121
7 The effect of introducing primaries on the profiles of
candidates in the Turkish context: the local experiences of
candidates 124

FARUK AKSOY
7.1 Introduction 124
7.2 Primaries and political experiences of candidates 125
7.3 Primaries of RPP in Turkey 128
7.4 Data, analysis, and results 132
7.5 Conclusion 138
References 139
8 Do candidate selection modes matter for the gender
diversity within political elites? Evidence from the
Belgian case in 2014 142

AUDREY VANDELEENE
8.1 Introduction 142
8.2 Gender diversity on the lists: literature review and hypotheses 143
8.3 The case of Belgium in 2014 148
8.4 Method and empirical results: do candidate selection processes
matter? 148
8.5 Empirical analysis: how candidate selection impacts gender
diversity 152
8.6 Conclusions 154
References 156
9 The use of primaries for the selection of party leaders in
the UK Conservative and Labour parties: formal rules
and ideological congruence 160

AGNÈS ALEXANDRE- COLLIER AND EMMANUELLE AVRIL
9.1 Introduction and research questions 160
9.2 The method: the hypotheses of organizational convergence
and ideological congruence 161
9.3 An overview of leadership election rules 165
9.4 Conclusions 172
References 177
viii Contents
10 Do different candidate selection methods produce
different types of candidates? An analysis of the
German case 180

ELISA DEISS-H ELBIG
10.1 Introduction 180
10.2 Candidate selection methods, party ideology, and the
representativeness of candidates 182
10.3 Candidate selection in Germany 184
10.4 Data and methods 186
10.5 Results 192
References 201
11 The ‘Belle Époque’ of French primary: the evolution of
the national and local framework of candidate selection 204

MARINO DE LUCA
11.1 Introduction 204
11.2 Research question, data, and methods 204
11.3 The socialist experiment and the development of the primary in
France 206
11.4 The contagion effects in the adoption of primaries by
communists, ecologists, and civil society 208
11.5 The primary of others: from the centre- left to the
centre- right 210
11.6 The local primary from 2014 to 2020 213
11.7 The impact on social and political profiles of candidates 215
11.8 Conclusion 224
References 225
12 Political elites and party primaries 228

ANTONELLA SEDDONE AND GIULIA SANDRI
12.1 Political parties between personalization and intra- party
democracy 228
12.2 Primaries and political elites: the impact of inclusive
selectorates 233
12.3 Preliminary results and notes for a research agenda 235
References 239
Appendix 244

Index 249
Figures

2.1 Personalization and level of intra- party democracy in Italian
political parties (2019) 22
2.2 Control over policy choices between members and leadership
in the main Italian parties (2017– 19) 24
2.3 Control over party policy choices and left- right position of
Italian parties (2018) 24
2.4 Party leader selection methods in Italy, by decade (1960– 2020) 31
2.5 Party leader selection method in Italy, by ideological
orientation (1960–2020) 32
2.6 Trend in intra- party competitiveness and inclusiveness in
Italian political parties, 1945– 2020 34
2.7 Intra- party competitiveness and inclusiveness of the Italian
political parties, 1945– 2020 35
2.8 Intra- party competitiveness and inclusiveness of the Italian
political parties, by decade 36
2.9 Age of the Italian party leaders at the time of the first
selection (by class age), 1945– 2020 38
2.10 Italian party leaders by level of education, 1945– 2020 38
3.1 Ideal types of sequences linking party primaries with party
elites’ strength and other indirect outcomes 49
4.1 Distribution of party primaries in Spain according to
political party and five- year periods 72
4.2 Spanish top candidates’ social, partisan, and political
features across time and selection method 73
4.3 The effects of party primaries on top candidates’ social,
partisan, and political features 77
5.1 Intra- party personalization of politics (the control of
parties by their leaders) in Italy, 2006– 16 86
5.2 MPs’ career classes in Italy, 2006– 16 87
5.3 Average marginal effect of PATTERN OF CAREER
(Peripherals and Insider Party Politicians only) on the
different levels of OFFICE conditioned to SELECTORATE 95