1st Edition

The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies A Comparative Study

Edited By Jean-Benoit Pilet, William Cross Copyright 2014
    308 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    288 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book explores the ways in which political parties, in contemporary parliamentary democracies, choose their leaders and then subsequently hold them accountable. The authors provide a comprehensive examination of party leadership selection and accountability both through examination of parties and countries in different institutional settings and through a holistic analysis of the role of party leaders and the methods through which they assume, and exit, the office.

    The collection includes essays on Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Norway and the United Kingdom which have important differences in their party systems, their degree of democratization, the role assigned to party leaders and their methods of leadership selection. Each country examination provides significant data relating to party rules and norms of leadership selection, leadership tenures and leadership contests. The book concludes with a chapter that merges the country data analyses to provide a truly comparative examination of the theoretical questions underlying the volume.

    This book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of legislative studies, elections, democracy, political parties, party systems, political elites and comparative politics.

    1. The Selection of Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies William P. Cross and Jean-Benoit Pilet  2. The Selection of Party Leaders in the UK Tim Bale and Paul Webb  3. The Selection of Party Leaders in Belgium Jean-Benoit Pilet and Bram Wauters  4. Unanimous, By Acclamation? Party Leadership Selection in Norway Elin Haugsgjerd Allern and Rune Karlsen  5. The Selection of Party Leaders in Austria: Channeling Ambition Effectively Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik and Wolfgang C. Müller  6. Party Leader Selection in Germany Klaus Detterbeck and Ingo Rohlfing  7. The Selection of Party Leaders in Italy Giulia Sandri, Antonella Seddone and Fulvio Venturino  8. The Selection of Party Leaders in Spain Oscar Barberà, Juan Rodríguez-Teruel, Astrid Barrio, and Montse Baras  9. The Selection of Party Leaders in Portugal Marco Lisi and André Freire  10. Let’s Not Risk Too Much: The Selection of Party Leaders in Romania Mihail Chiru and Sergiu Gherghina  11. Stable Leadership in the Context of Party Change: The Hungarian Case Gabriella Ilonszki and Réka Várnagy  12. Selecting Party Leaders in Israel Ofer Kenig and Gideon Rahat  13. Party Leadership in Canada William P. Cross  14. Leadership Selection in Australia Anika Gauja  15. The Selection of Party Leaders in Comparative Perspective Jean-Benoit Pilet and William P. Cross

    Biography

    Jean-Benoit Pilet is Professor and Director of Cevipol in the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium.

    William Cross is the Hon. Dick and Ruth Bell Chair for the Study of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University, Canada.