Effects of Party Primaries in German Regional Party Branches

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, German parties at the regional level have started to hold party primaries (infrequently) to select their leaders. In recent years, research on primaries has attracted the attention of political science scholars, but surprisingly, the German case has been left out of international comparative studies. Hence, I tested four hypotheses on possible consequences regarding membership numbers, intra-party competition, and characteristics of party leaders. My findings indicate that primaries attract more candidates than conventions, but there are no differences in the closeness of the race. Party leaders selected by rank-and-file members are less politically experienced than those selected by delegates. The probability that the most experienced candidate wins a competitive leadership race is much lower in primaries. In contrast to previous studies, I find no signs that women are disadvantaged in primaries. However, I find support for the glass cliff phenomenon: in both delegate conferences and primaries, female leaders are selected in weaker party branches.