Political Elites in Electoral Democracies

This section focuses on the role of political elites in general and parliamentary candidates and MPs in particular, in electoral democracies. Studies on voting behaviour and political representation, at least in the European context, focus to a large degree on parties as unitary actors. Electoral democracies, however, only function because many individuals are willing to put themselves forward as candidates and commit time and passion into political activities. In all elections a large number of candidates are running and they have their own incentives, intentions and beliefs which may differ not just between countries and parties but also within parties. Only in recent years the interest in this personal dimension of representation and the incentives and consequences of individual candidates to attract personal votes has increased. The importance of parliamentary candidates and elected MPs for policy making varies; nevertheless political elites are central in linking citizens and the state. How this linkage between voters and candidates in elections works, is essential for the functioning of electoral democracies. The goal of this section is to collect papers that give new insights on the role of elites in electoral democracies. How do candidates campaign under different electoral formulae? How does intra-party democracy, elite recruitment and candidate selection work? What are the self-perceptions of party elites about their roles and what are their policy attitudes? What is the role of candidates in the process of representation? How and for whom do electoral systems provide incentives to attract personal votes? Papers which go beyond single case studies but provide comparative insights on the role of party elites in electoral democracies, taking into account gender differences and how contextual factors, mainly the electoral system and patterns of party competition influence the behaviour of party elites are especially welcome.