The antidote to the gathering storm? Party primaries in France and Greece, a comparative analysis.

In Europe political parties did not constitute institutes of the state in organizing elections as was the case in the USA. Thus, primaries as being introduced in Europe do not constitute the reproduction of the practice of USA parties in Europe. Instead, many of the functions performed by primaries in the USA facilitated the conduct of elections, such as the construction of the electoral register, were conducted in Europe by the state. As a result, the introduction of primaries in Europe can be attributed to the declining function of political parties as institutions which produced and constructed a linkage between the citizen and the state, as well as to the altering nature of political parties themselves. Faced with an apolitical electorate and/or an alienated electorate, political parties had to find ways through which the electoral could be re – engaged within the party process if not the political process as such. Multiple variables contribute to the emergence of an apolitical or disengaged electorate. However, political parties that have introduced primaries seem to constitute a group of political parties which have either undertaken radical realignment of their ideology, program and values or gone through a period of crisis that has given birth to deep internal divisions within each of these parties. Parties facing a crisis with the electorate as well as the sections of society that once constituted their societal anchored in the past, parties which found themselves after a failed period in government deeply divided among competing functions and competing projects for the way their party, its ideological orientation and future government policy should evolve; all found the introduction of primaries as the most acceptable way in resolving the issues that have emerged with such force. The organization of primaries constituted the antidote that parties, faced with a threat of dissolution in multitudes of micro parties, found in order to combat the gathering storm that they found themselves in and which threatened to engulf them. Primaries as practiced in France, Greece do not constitute a weakening of the power of conduct exercised by the party establishment on the recruitment procedures. On the contrary, they constitute an increase of the power that the parties’ establishments have over their parties. The way that party primaries have been exercised in France and Greece has further enhanced the power that party elites have over political parties and the electorate as a whole and has permitted party leaderships’ to bypass what have been left of the parties’ memberships as well of the rights that they enjoyed within the architecture of party organizations. A number of amorphous structures and of functions this time depleted from any real power, have been established by the party leadership and have come to replace the previous structures and functions. The outcome of these changes has been the increase of the autonomy that the party elites enjoy over the rest of the party organization and it has led to the further depreciation of the functions and the rights which derived from their performance that the existing party membership had. As a result the ability by party members to construct any effective platform within the party structures from which a challenge to the party leadership and party elites could be launched, has been further diminished. These changes concerning parties’ memberships follow a leading trend within party transformation which has seen parties not simply change the essence of the very functions that they performed as catch all and mass parties in the past, but has led to the hollowing of these very functions and the depletion of the essence of many of the tasks that they performed. This process of organizational development of political parties has lead to the loose of significant amount for political parties, of their ability to function as articulators of political demands and integrators of diverse societal forces. While the introduction of primary elections has not provided political parties with any electoral benefits neither has it lead to an organizational revival of the old party membership however it has provided an effective instrument of preventing party splits and the disintegration of the political parties that practice open primaries. While candidates selected by party primaries have been defeated at elections however party primaries seem to have function as effective instruments which by meditating the existing tensions within political parties, have preventing the disintegration, or splitting of political parties. Primaries have prevented the disintegration of political parties, they have not healed the existing sources of tension within political parties and have led to the emergence of a new tacit aggregation of interests between political opponents that exist within the same party. If one thing party primaries as practices in France and Greece have achieved is to retain the unity of political parties and enhance their belligerent nature permitting them to continue to be competitive forces within the electoral field, augment personalized politics and further promote the concept of democratic politics as the praxis of delegated politics.