Intra-party

democracy
Comparative Political Institutions

Rozemarijn van Dijk

Outline
• What is intra-party democracy?

• Candidate selection and leadership selection

• Primaries

• Intra-party democracy: a necessity for democracy?

Recap: what is a political party?
• Core objectives of political parties
• The pursuit of power

• Functions
• Coordination
• Conducting electoring campaigns
• Selection and recruitment of personnel
• Representation

“the political parties created democracy, and modern

democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties”
Schattschneider (1942)
Definition of intra-party democracy (IPD)
• Democracy within a party
• But which demos?

• Contestable:
• Participation, inclusiveness accountability or else?
• Process or outcome?
Definition of intra-party democracy (IPD)

Assembly democracy Plebiscitary democracy

Inclusiveness of decision- Member ballots for
making via: • programme writing
• discussions • personnel selections
• exhanging arguments

Poguntke et al., 2016

Definition of intra-party democracy (IPD)
Political participation

Competition

Representation

Responsiveness

Transparency

Rahat & Shapira, 2017

Definition of intra-party democracy (IPD)
Political participation 30%

Competition 20%

Representation 20%

Responsiveness 15%

Transparency 15%

Rahat & Shapira, 2017

Why do parties want IPD?
• Changes on political system
level

• Changes on the party system

level

• Changes on the intra-party

level
Changes on political system level
• Long-term social, cultural end political trends

• Individualization
• Declining membership rates
• Economic crisis?
Change in ratio of party membership to
electorate since 1990s – 2008

Van Biezen, 2013

Changes on political system level
• Long-term social, cultural end political trends

• Individualization
• Declining membership rates
• Economic crisis?

Legitimacy
Changes on party level
• Interactions between political parties

• Electoral failure: primaries as an attractive attribute?

• Contagion: if they have it, we want it too
Changes on intra-party level
• Interactions between individuals, factions and other possible
groupings within the party
• Leadership contests
• Disputes between factions
Candidate Schattschneider (1942): “The nature of the nominating process
determines the nature of the party; he who can make the
selection and nominations is the owner of the party. This is therefore one of the

IPD best points at which to observe the distribution of power within

the party.”
Candidate selection
‘Secret garden of politics’ (Gallagher & Marsh, 1988)

• 4 dimensions (Hazan & Rahat, 2010)

1. Who can be selected as the party’s candidate?
2. Who selects the candidates? Influenced by
electoral system
3. Where does selection takes place?
4. How are the candidates selected?

Selectorate: those who nominate

a party’s candidate for an election
Who selects the candidates? - Inclusivity

← inclusive / exclusive →

Voters Party members Party delegates Party elite Party leader

Primary zone
Who selects the candidates? - Inclusivity
Inclusiveness of Belgian parties

Vandeleene, 2014
Centralization of the selectorate

← centralized / decentralized →

National Regional Local

Less simple as it seems
• Multi-stages means
different rules and
selectorates

• Many options!
Consequences of IPD and candidate selection

Selectorate Inclusiveness Competition Representation

Nomination committee Low Medium High
Party members High Low Low
 Primaries(?) in Malawi
• Selecting candidates in 193
constituencies

• Who votes?
• Delegates

• How?

Seeberg, 2022
Candidate selection via
the internet
• NEOS (Austria)

• 3 different types of selectorates

• Party Elite
• Party members
• Citizens

Jenny, 2018
NEOS: three stage primaries

Suggesting Screening Selecting Finalizing

Non-members Members Party elite

 Leadership
selection and IPD
Leadership selection and IPD
• Inclusive or exclusive?

• A true competition?
• Harms party cohesion?
Primaries in the U.S.

• 1968

• Delegates

• Open vs. Closed primaries

The importance of Iowa
• The order matters

• Concern about representativeness

IPD and other
matters
Policy issues
• Italy: 5 star movement

• Policy

• Very inclusive: free membership

Deseriis & Vittori, 2019

Government
agreements
• Netherlands, CDA
• Vote on agreement with PVV
(Wilders)
Ministers
• Groen:
• 3 scouts
• Party Board + PPG
• Party Council
IPD a good idea?
Let’s practice some IPD ourselves

5 minutes to discuss with your neighbor whether you are in

favor or against IPD
End