Leadership selection versus candidate selection: Similarities and differences

This chapter focuses on the selection of the candidates to the role of chief executive. Here we take into account all five cases of the democratic selection of chief executive candidates that have so far occurred in Italy and France. The Italian primaries’ aim is to select a candidate for prime minister entering a parliamentary election, while in France primaries are used to select a presidential candidate. For sake of comparison, we focus on the parliamentary elections both in Italy and in France, although in the latter presidential elections are more directly linked with primaries. In any case, here we replicate that approach by considering whether and how primaries affect party membership. With regard to membership, let us now consider the effects of primary elections on the recruitment of party members. Moreover, if the primaries play any role, the number of partisans is expected to rise after the primaries as a consequence of improved party image.