The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies

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.

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.

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