The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy provides a comprehensive examination of both the concept and the practice of intra-party democracy (IPD). Acknowledging that IPD is now widely viewed, among both democratic practitioners and scholars, as a normative good, this volume suggests that there is no single, or uniformly preferred, form of IPD. Rather, each party's version of IPD results from a series of choices they make relating to the organization and division of power internally. These decisions reflect many variables including a party's democratic ethos, its electoral context, state regulation and whether or not it is in government. Individual chapters examine the relationship between party models and IPD, the decline in party membership and activism, the role of the state in regulating party democracy, issues relating to gender and party organization, norms of candidate and leadership recruitment and selection, party policy development and party finance. The analysis considers the principal issues that parties (and the state) must consider relating to IPD in each area of party activity, the range of options open to them, current trends in terms of paths chosen, what these choices tell us about parties and, most importantly, what the implications of these choices are. In doing so, we offer a common language and set of questions relating to IPD that enhance the ability for consistent evaluation of the state of internal party democracy. Through thorough analysis of associated costs and benefits, we also provide a framework to assist with considerations of IPD reforms — particularly in terms of their scope, the range of options available and their implications.
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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).
Richard S Katz is Professor of Political Science at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He was co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research (2006-2012). His books include A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems (Johns Hopkins 1980, 2006), Democracy and Elections (Oxford 1997), Handbook of Party Politics, ed. with William Crotty (Sage 2006), The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy, ed. with William P. Cross, (Oxford 2013). He was vice-chair and treasurer on the Executive Committee of the European Consortium for Political Research.
R. Kenneth Carty is Professor Emeritus and former Head of Political Science in the University of British Columbia, where he held the Brenda and David McLean Chair in Canadian Studies, and served as the Director of the UBC Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Carty is a past President of the Canadian Political Science Association. His publications include Big Tent Politics (UBC Press, 2015), When Citizens Decide (with P. Fournier, H. van der Kolk, A. Blais, and J. Rose; OUP, 2015), and Politics is Local (OUP, 2005).
Sarah Childs is Professor of Politics at the University of Bristol, and Director of the UoB’s SPAIS Gender Research Centre. She has published widely on gender, representation, political parties and the UK Parliament. Her latest book, Sex, Gender and the Conservative Party: From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels, with Paul Webb, was published in 2012.
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).
Daniela R Piccio holds a PhD from the European University Institute, Florence. Since 2010 she has been a postdoctoral Research Associate at Leiden University. Her work has appeared in South European Society and Politics, Representation, and International Political Science Review, as well as in several edited book volumes. Her main research interests include political parties, political representation, social movements, and party (finance) regulation.
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).
Susan Scarrow is Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston. Her scholarship and teaching has focused on representation and electoral institutions, including political party development, direct democracy, and political finance. Her prior publications include Parties and their Members (Oxford University Press), Perspectives on Political Parties (Palgrave), and Democracy Transformed? (Oxford University Press, edited with Russell J. Dalton and Bruce Cain).
Ingrid van Biezen is Professor of Comparative Politics at Leiden University. She has previously taught at the University of Birmingham (UK) and Johns Hopkins University, and has held Visiting Fellowships at Yale University, the University of California, Irvine, and European University Institute. She is a co-editor of Acta Politica, a former co-editor of the Political Data Yearbook and the author of Political Parties in New Democracies. Her current research focuses on political parties, party regulation, and democratic theory. She has published in, among others, the British Journal of Political Science, the European Journal of Political Research, the European Political Science Review, Government and Opposition, Party Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and West European Politics.
Lisa Young is Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include Canadian political parties, women's participation in politics, interest groups and social movements and the regulation of electoral finance.
