‘Out of Touch?’ The Definition and Operationalization of Intra-Party Democracy in Western European Parties

Intra-Party Democracy in Western European parties has been extensively studied at comparative level. Scholars have mainly focused on candidate selection; party leader selection; decisional processes; party laws; party finance. Nonetheless, a solid and inclusive definition and a reliable operationalization of Intra-Party Democracy have not been devised yet. Moreover, not even a minimal definition of this concept has been found, unlike what has happened for other political concepts such as ‘democracy’ and ‘political party’. We will review the most important scientific contributions on the main alleged features of Intra-Party Democracy and answer a fundamental question: is it possible to build a minimal and comprehensive definition of Intra-Party Democracy for Western European parties? By examining different dimensions – e.g. elite selection and intra-party decisional processes - we will define a new multidimensional index able to specify the prerequisites to be used in order to consider a party as minimally democratic.