{"title":"The Occasional Democratisation of Party Leadership Selection: A Mechanism-Centred Approach","authors":"Anne Küppers","doi":"10.1007/s11615-023-00487-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Membership ballots have gained increasing popularity for party leadership selection around the globe. Still, our understanding of why parties use primaries is limited. This is due to two shortcomings of existing research: First, previous research has failed to satisfactorily operationalise subjective concepts such as electoral defeat. Second, quantitative studies cannot account for causal complexity. Thus, to uncover the puzzle of why parties use party primaries, this article pursues a novel approach. I offer new insights by using theory-testing process tracing to uncover the complex causal mechanisms that explain the use of membership ballots, taking Germany as an example. In the four cases studied, I find that it is a combination of an electoral shock, internal conflict, and instrumental motives that explain the decision to hold a primary for party leadership selection.","PeriodicalId":45529,"journal":{"name":"Politische Vierteljahresschrift","volume":"139 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Politische Vierteljahresschrift","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11615-023-00487-x","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Membership ballots have gained increasing popularity for party leadership selection around the globe. Still, our understanding of why parties use primaries is limited. This is due to two shortcomings of existing research: First, previous research has failed to satisfactorily operationalise subjective concepts such as electoral defeat. Second, quantitative studies cannot account for causal complexity. Thus, to uncover the puzzle of why parties use party primaries, this article pursues a novel approach. I offer new insights by using theory-testing process tracing to uncover the complex causal mechanisms that explain the use of membership ballots, taking Germany as an example. In the four cases studied, I find that it is a combination of an electoral shock, internal conflict, and instrumental motives that explain the decision to hold a primary for party leadership selection.
期刊介绍:
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Politische Vierteljahresschrift (PVS) (“German Political Science Quarterly”, GPSQ) publishes the latest double-blind peer-reviewed research results from all sub-disciplines of political science. It thus includes original contributions from political theory and the history of ideas, from the analysis and comparison of political systems, from policy analysis, from the field of international relations and foreign policy, from empirical social research and methodology, from political sociology as well as political science pedagogy.
The contributions published in PVS come from German or German-speaking political scientists as well as from international political scientists who refer to the German or German-speaking political science.
Special Issues
Special Issues provide opportunities to contribute to important thematic and/or theoretical developments in political science or its subfields. Regular Calls for Proposals are initiated by the Editors, but potential Guest Editors may also send offers for special issues at any time. Special issues include at least six contributions to be recruited by the Guest Editors, supplemented by an introduction. Most of these contributions are critical papers, but the integration of a literature review and/or one or two research notes is also possible. All contributions need to successfully pass the double-blind peer-review process before publication.
The PVS is listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
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Die Politische Vierteljahresschrift (PVS) – German Political Science Quarterly bietet Raum für neueste Forschungsergebnisse aus allen Teildisziplinen der Politikwissenschaft. Sie beinhaltet doppelblind begutachtete Beiträge aus der Politischen Theorie und Ideengeschichte, aus dem Bereich Analyse und Vergleich politischer Systeme, aus der Policy-Analyse, aus dem Bereich der Internationalen Beziehungen und der Außenpolitik, aus der empirischen Sozialforschung und Methodenlehre, der Politischen Soziologie sowie der Didaktik der Politikwissenschaft.
Die in der PVS veröffentlichten Beiträge stammen von deutschen bzw. deutschsprachigen Politikwissenschaftler*innen sowie von internationalen Politikwissenschaftler*innen, die sich mit der deutschen bzw. deutschsprachigen Politikwissenschaft auseinandersetzen.
Special Issues
Das Special Issue soll die Möglichkeit bieten, auf thematische und theoretische Entwicklungen im Fach insgesamt oder in einzelnen Teildisziplinen zu reagieren, denen eine fachallgemeine Bedeutung zugeschrieben werden kann. Die Redaktion akquiriert mögliche Schwerpunkte eigenständig über entsprechende Call for Proposals, ist aber für entsprechende Initiativen und Vorschläge offen.
In Special Issues werden mindestens sechs von Gastherausgeber*innen einzuwerbende Beiträge zusammengefasst und durch eine inhaltliche Einleitung durch die Gastherausgeber*innen ergänzt. Die Beiträge sollen schwerpunktmäßig Abhandlungen sein; es sind aber auch die Integration einer Literaturübersicht und/oder einer bis zwei Research Notes möglich. Veröffentlicht werden ausschließlich Beiträge, die erfolgreich das anonymisierte Gutachter*innenverfahren durchlaufen haben und für eine Veröffentlichung empfohlen wurden.
Die PVS wird im Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) erfasst.