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Online primaries and intra-party democracy:Candidate selection processes in Podemos and the Five Star Movement
Mikola, Bálint
Mikola, Bálint
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24
Pages
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Mikola-Balint_2017.pdf
Adobe PDF, 630.29 KB
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/28816
Abstract
Online primaries are widely considered as the most inclusive and accessible form of intra-party decision-
making. However, their openness also carries the risk of strengthening parties’ leadership vis-à-vis other
organizational units. In order to test the implications of these procedures on intra-party democracy, this paper addresses the candidate selection processes of two parties that rely exclusively on online primaries:
Podemos and the Five Star Movement. The analysis combines two perspectives: first, it describes the
rules of candidate selection processes in each party based on party statutes and other party documents,
and second, it tracks the progression of candidates through all stages of the candidate selection process
during the 2013 Italian and the 2015 Spanish general elections on the one hand, and the 2014 European
Parliament elections on the other. Based on these two perspectives, the cases are classified along the
four dimensions established by Rahat and Hazan (2001): candidacy, selectorate, decentralization and
voting/appointment systems. The findings indicate that contrary to expectations, the candidate selection
processes were more tightly controlled in Podemos, primarily through the adoption of block voting
that favoured lists headed and supported by the party leader. Moreover, Podemos’ lists of candidates
were substantially modified after the primaries, a pattern not found in M5S. However, due to the tight
restrictions on eligibility and the lack of availability of information regarding the voting rules applied in
the candidate selection process, the Five Star Movement scores worse on inclusiveness and transparency, which also raises concerns regarding the competitiveness of the contest.
Topic
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Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2017-02
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.7238/idp.v0i24.3070