Democratic Innovation Within Political Parties

Abstract

Various scholars, but also policy makers and activists, claim that an increased involvement of citizens in the political decision-making process could serve as a remedy to counter the alleged loss of legitimacy of representative politics (Tormey, 2015). Notably, democratic innovation also happens within political parties: Political parties increasingly adopt direct, participative internal decision-making processes (Katz and Cross 2013; Gauja 2016; Wauters 2010), such as alternative forms of party affiliation (Scarrow 2014) and more inclusive procedures of leadership and candidate selection processes, including party primaries (Cross and Pilet 2015; Scarrow, Webb and Poguntke 2017). Furthermore, political parties can provide a suitable environment for deliberative practices (Wolkenstein 2016). We welcome contributions that explore different kinds of intra-party democratic innovation.