Abstract
Research on party politics has been increasingly interested in how parties conduct their internal affairs. One specific aspect of investigation has been the recent shift toward more inclusive and open candidate and leadership selection methods: party primaries. This book further complements these studies by providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art of the research into primaries and addresses previously unexplored questions. In contrast to most other studies, it explores both candidate and leadership selection at the same time, thus providing a more complete picture of the challenges faced by both types of selections to fulfil their democratic potential.
Throughout the book, the authors consider the impact of primaries not only for intra-party dynamics but also for general elections. Here, they explore to what extent measures introduced to address challenges at general elections, such as state regulations and oversight, could be applied to primaries. It links the debate surrounding primaries to the broader discussion about the changing role and function of parties and their members in established democracies, with specific focus on how primaries affect the conception of parties as either public utilities or private organizations. Throughout, the analysis is supported by a wealth of very detailed and informative data useful for future comparative studies.
The first half of the book provides a comprehensive definition and conceptualization of the term “party primary” and reviews the evidence concerning the spread of primaries. It updates existing studies (Sandri et al., 2015) on the spread of primaries by including more countries and political positions on the national and subnational level, an aspect very little explored in the current literature (Detterbeck, 2013). First, based on “who can vote in them,” that is, the selectorate, the authors suggest the following definition of party primaries: “primaries are the selection methods in which the cumulative weight of influence of party members, supporters and/or voters (primary zone) is equal or greater than all other more exclusive selectorate(s) combined” (p. 25). Based on this, they suggest a typology to distinguish between pure and mixed primaries each consisting of various subtypes (p. 35). In pure primaries, the selectorate consists only of party members (closed primary), supporters (semi-open primary), voters (open primary), or mix of these groups (complex primary). In contrast, mixed primaries are always combinations of primary and non-primary zone selectorate, such as the party congress or parliamentary group. The two subtypes of mixed primaries are, first, the weighted primary where the primary zone selectorates have at least 50% of the vote and second the multi-stage primary, containing multiple primary and non-primary zone selectorates.
Unlike many previous classifications that distinguish mainly between closed and open primaries, this new typology provides a more detailed and nuanced picture of the diverse universe of primaries. However, the book provides little justification for why a classification of primaries only based on the selectorate is the most suitable. Why, for example, do the authors not consider a classification based on candidate requirements, as “who can run” in a primary is an important defining feature of primaries that, if too restrictive or open, can undermine the democratic process and legitimacy of it. Further, even if parties address all the challenges listed by the authors later, candidate requirements can remain a large obstacle in realizing the democratic process primaries can offer and thus should be reflected in a typology of primaries.
The second half of the book considers the following challenges that undermine the democratic integrity of primaries and need to be overcome to further enhance its democratic benefit: the role of the party in rule-making and administration of primaries; the impact of the choice of selectorate on party membership; the primary campaign including who is selected; and, finally, the financing of primaries. The book is a comparative study of Canada and Israel. This case selection follows a “most different” system design as both cases are very different in terms of political culture and institutional environment but have a long history of using primaries to selected leaders and candidates. This allows the authors to distill whether challenges that undermine democratic credentials are universal to party primaries or the specific case context. Each chapter represents a rich, in-depth survey exploring the ways in which a specific challenge opens the door for manipulation of the primary process by party leadership and the candidates, undermining the democratic process and legitimacy of party primaries. For example, the authors argue that if parties are allowed to set and enforce the rules governing primaries they often manipulate, change, or ignore them to favor the current leadership. Further, with regard to the choice of selectorate, the often loose definition of party membership—for the purpose of widening participation in primaries—might also allow candidates to recruit new members to create favorable selectorate and undercut the influence of long-term and loyal members. Here, the analysis could be strengthened by bring in the individual-level membership perspective to provide more information on what existing members think about primaries and the inflow of new temporary members.
The overall aim is to reveal the specific challenge of primaries that need to be overcome in order for them to achieve their full democratic potential. While the title of the book claims to also address the promises and positive aspect of primaries, this, unfortunately, seems a bit forgotten and lost through the book. Nevertheless, this is an excellent book for both new and experienced scholars aiming to learn more about party primaries, intra-party democracy, and the challenges parties face.