Making use of a unique data set that includes more than 1000 leadership elections from over 100 parties in 14 countries over an almost 50 year period, this volume provides the first comprehensive, comparative examination of how parties choose their leaders and the impact of the different decisions they make in this regard. Among the issues examined are how leaders are chosen, the factors that result in parties changing their selection rules, how the rules affect the competitiveness of leadership elections, the types of leaders chosen, the impact of leadership transition on electoral outcomes, the factors affecting the length of leadership tenures, and how leadership tenures come to an end.
This volume is situated in the literature on intra-party decision making and party organizational reform and makes unique and important contributions to our understanding of these areas. The analysis includes parties in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
30% off all books in the Comparative Politics Series for ECPR Member affiliates – please contact editorial@ecpr.eu for more details on how to claim the discount.
William P Cross is Professor and Bell Chair for the Study of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy at Carleton University. He is a student of comparative political institutions and his work emphasizes the internal organization of political parties. His recent (co-authored and co-edited) books include: The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections (McGill-Queen's 2016), The Politics of Party Leadership (Oxford 2016), Fighting for Votes: Parties, the Media and Voters in an Ontario Election (UBC Press 2015), The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies (Routledge 2014), The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy (Oxford 2013) and Politics at the Centre: the Selection and Removal of Party Leaders in Anglo Parliamentary Democracies (Oxford 2012).
Jean-Benoit Pilet is a professor of Political Science at ULB. He works on elections, electoral system, political parties and representation. He is the coauthor of Faces on the Ballot; The Personalization of Electoral Systems in Europe (with Alan Renwick – Oxford UP 2016) and The Politics of Political Party Leadership in Comparative Perspective (with William Cross – Oxford
UP 2015).
Tim Bale is Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London.
Oscar Barberà is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Universitat de València (UV).
Mihail Chiru is a Departmental Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations and a Tutor at Christ Church College, University of Oxford.
Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna’s Department of Government (Austria) with a research interest in political parties, coalition politics, patronage, and politicisation in the public sector. He is the author of a number of publications, including articles in the European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Party Politics,
Political Studies, and Governance.
André Freire is a Full Professor of Political Science at ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon University Institute, and a senior researcher at CIES-IUL.
Anika Gauja is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations at Sydney University, teaching in Comparative and Australian politics. Her research interests focus on the comparative analysis of political institutions in modern representative democracies. Her publications include The Politics of Party Policy (2013, Palgrave Macmillan), Political Parties and Elections (2010, Ashgate), and Party Members and Activists (co-edited with Emilie van Haute, 2015, Routledge).
Sergiu Gherghina, Goethe University Frankfurt a.M., is a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer in Political Science, and a member of the Research Unit ‘Democratic Innovations’. He has held fellowships, research and teaching positions at various universities/institutes such as Central European University Budapest, Queen Mary University London, the University of Siena and the Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg. His research interests include political institutions (parties, governments, or legislatures), legislative and voting behaviour, democratisation processes, direct democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, and deliberative democratic practices in constitutional change. He has recently published in the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative European Politics, East European Politics, European Union Politics, European Political Science, International Political Science Review and Party Politics.
Oliver Gruber is a University Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna.
Helene Helboe Pedersen is Professor at Department of Political Science at Aarhus University.
Ofer Kenig is a Senior Lecturer at Ashkelon Academic College and a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. His areas of research include comparative politics, political parties, leadership and candidate selection and Israeli politics. He co-authored the books Reforming the Israel Political System (2013) and The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections (2016). In addition, he has published articles in a range of journals, including Electoral Studies and Representation, as well as chapters in edited volumes.
Marco Lisi is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies, Nova University of Lisbon, and researcher at IPRI-NOVA, Portugal.
Scott Pruysers is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. His current research interests include party organization in multi-level states, intra-party democracy, and political psychology. His research has been published in a variety of national and international journals such as the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Representation, Regional and Federal Studies, and Politics & Gender.
Gideon Rahat is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works on political parties, candidate selection and electoral reform. He is author of The Politics of Regime Structure Reform in Democracies: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective (State University of New York Press, 2008), and Democracy within Parties: Candidate Selection Methods and their Political Consequences (with Reuven Y. Hazan) (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Juan Rodríguez-Teruel is an Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Valencia.
Giulia Sandri is an associate professor at the European School of Political and Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Lille. She was previously research fellow at Christ Church and at the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford. Her main research interests are party politics, intra-party democracy and political behaviour.
Gijs Schumacher is an Associate Professor in Political Science, University of Amsterdam.
Antonella Seddone is an assistant professor at the Department of Cultures, Politics, and Society of the University of Turin.
Or Tuttnauer is a DAAD postdoctoral fellow at MZES Mannheim and a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Fulvio Venturino is an Associate Professor at University of Cagliari.
Bram Wauters is an associate professor at the Department of Political Sciences of the Ghent University, Belgium, where he leads the research group GASPAR. His research interests include political representation, elections and political parties, with special attention to diversity.
