Reuven Y. Hazan

Candidate Selection Methods An Analytical Framework

The framework presented in this article supplies tools for delineating candidate selection methods, defines what is meant by their democratization and offers an analytical framework for cross-national comparison. The first section of this article raises the problems of classifying candidate selection methods and suggests solutions for them. Each of the next four sections offers a dimension for the classification of candidate selection methods: candidacy; party selectorates; decentralization; and voting/appointment systems. The sixth section defines the process of democratizing candidate selection, and demonstrates its implementation in the three largest political parties in Israel prior to the 1996 elections, via the dimensions of the analytical framework. The subsequent section assesses the repercussions of this democratizing phenomenon in general and provides empirical evidence drawn from the Israeli experience in the 1990s. The article concludes by examining the ability of political parties to comprehend and to overcome the consequences of democratizing candidate selection.

Democratizing Candidate Selection : Causes and Consequences

This special issue offers an up-to-date overview of the democratization of candidate selection, while giving attention to causes and cases from both past and present. The focus is on the consequences of internal democratization for the overall functioning of political parties. The contributions show that there are many forms of democratizing candidate selection. These differences mainly concern the inclusiveness of the selectorate that controls the candidate selection process and the degree of centralization of the selection methods, of which the role and composition of the selectorate are the most vital and defining criteria. The types of consequences and their impact on the functioning of parties are not univocal because there are different degrees of democratization. The empirical evidence presented by the contributions shows that moderate forms of democratization can have beneficial effects on party organizations - such as higher levels of membership participation - but that this effect is not certain. Radical forms, on the other hand, are more likely to distort party cohesiveness, and consequently weaken the quality of representative democracy.

Presidential parliamentarism: Direct popular election of the Prime Minister, Israel's new electoral and political system

Abstract In 1992, the Israeli parliament enacted the new Basic Law: The Government, which provides Israel with the distinction of being the only country to have direct popular election of its Prime Minister (beginning with the next election, scheduled for mid-1996). This new law not only effectively alters the electoral system, but also changes the entire political system in Israel, replacing its pure parliamentary system with a new, hybrid and unique regime type. This article describes the circumstances that brought about the recent reforms in Israel, delineates the electoral changes which were adopted, and analyzes whether Israel has switched from a parliamentary to a presidential political system.

The influence of candidate selection methods on legislatures and legislators: Theoretical propositions, methodological suggestions and empirical evidence

This article focuses on an external institution that moulds the internal composition of legislatures and influences the behaviour of its members – the candidate selection method. More specifically, different candidate selection methods place different institutional constraints on legislators. Legislative performance is, therefore, directly influenced by particular factors in the candidate selection method. The first section of this article explains what candidate selection methods are, and why this institution is important for the study of politics in general and legislative politics in particular. The second section presents the main distinctive factor in candidate selection methods, the selectorate. The third section suggests hypotheses regarding the impact of this central element in candidate selection methods on the makeup of legislatures and the behaviour of legislators. The fourth section proposes a methodology for implementing the new perspective suggested here by offering various measurements for assessing the legislative consequences of candidate selection methods. The final section presents the empirical data that are available.

REPRESENTATION, ELECTORAL REFORM, AND DEMOCRACY Theoretical and Empirical Lessons From the 1996 Elections in Israel

This article argues that researchers must broaden their definition of representation if they are to expand their understanding of electoral reform. The authors use the 1996 case of inter- and intraparty electoral reform in Israel to illustrate their claim. These reforms were designed either to enhance the circle of participation or to improve governability, without damaging representation. However, the type of representation that was supposed to be maintained by the reforms was different in each case. Party primaries were supposed to preserve representation as presence, whereas direct election of the prime minister was supposed to uphold the representation of ideas. The reformers did not perceive this distinction and felt that representation (defined as proportionality) would not be affected by both reforms. The result of the 1996 elections in Israel was that both reforms damaged representation, and both missed their targets.

Constituency interests without constituencies:: the geographical impact of candidate selection on party organization and legislative behavior in the 14th Israeli Knesset, 1996–99

Abstract The Israeli political system has recently undergone dramatic and significant structural changes, including the introduction of a new method of candidate selection known as primaries. This article focuses on this new method of candidate selection, which drastically reshaped the connection between the parties and their members, their voters and their representatives, and as a result completely undermined the organizational infrastructure of the parties that adopted primaries. This article describes the reforms that were enacted, assesses their ramifications and focuses on the geographical significance of the innovative aspect of constituency representation by individual parliamentarians, which the primaries injected into the unitary political parties, electoral system and political infrastructure in Israel during the 14th Knesset, 1996–99. In doing so, this article points to a lacuna in the political science literature concerning the relevance and consequences of candidate selection—i.e. intra-party elections—on political geography. The article argues that intra-party electoral reform is not only significant, but, from a political geography perspective, can prove to be as meaningful and consequential as systemic electoral reform.

Democratizing Candidate Selection

This special issue offers an up-to-date overview of the democratization of candidate selection, while giving attention to causes and cases from both past and present. The focus is on the consequences of internal democratization for the overall functioning of political parties. The contributions show that there are many forms of democratizing candidate selection. These differences mainly concern the inclusiveness of the selectorate that controls the candidate selection process and the degree of centralization of the selection methods, of which the role and composition of the selectorate are the most vital and defining criteria. The types of consequences and their impact on the functioning of parties are not univocal because there are different degrees of democratization. The empirical evidence presented by the contributions shows that moderate forms of democratization can have beneficial effects on party organizations - such as higher levels of membership participation - but that this effect is not certain. Radical forms, on the other hand, are more likely to distort party cohesiveness, and consequently weaken the quality of representative democracy.

Reconceptualising Electoral Reform

This article delineates the three waves of development in the study of electoral reform: the systematic description and consequences of electoral systems; the analysis of major reform and its political consequences; and a more comprehensive approach to the study of electoral reform. It seeks to achieve two goals. The first is to shift attention away from the political consequences of electoral change and toward what takes place before the passage of reform. Beyond delineating what electoral reform is, the authors ask: Why does it occur? Who initiates the electoral reform? When, and where, does it succeed or fail to pass the necessary obstacles? How should we study it? They therefore want to analyse the determinants of electoral reform. Their second goal is to elaborate an agenda for future research in electoral change, and they do so by discussing both the reconceptualisation and the methodology of electoral reform research.

The Barriers to Electoral System Reform: A Synthesis of Alternative Approaches

The article suggests that a research framework that focuses on the barriers to reform would promote the analysis of both the successes and the failures of electoral initiatives. This framework asks what keeps the electoral system stable over time. The article investigates what stops reform, rather than why there is a desire to reform. The barriers framework synthesises two of the main approaches used in explaining electoral reform, institutionalism and rational choice; it is useful because it can explain both the success and the failure of reform initiatives, and even those cases of non-reform. Seven barriers are listed that reformers must overcome when trying to promote electoral reform; the article then examines the ways reformers can pass each barrier; assesses the relative strength of the various barriers; and suggests ways to advance the study of electoral reform by using the proposed barriers approach.

Why Democracies Collapse: The Reasons for Democratic Failure and Success

Most studies of democratic stability are based within either the socioeconomic or the politico-institutional tradition, but usually not on both. This article combines the two approaches. In all, 11 variables associated with democratic stability are divided into four groups (institutional, societal, mediating, and extraneous) and examined in 30 cases of democratic collapse and 32 cases of stable democracies. Five variables prove to be the most influential on the fate of democracies. When a country scores negatively on four of these five variables it is almost doomed to collapse. Some of the variables prove to be correlated in an opposite way to that which has been suggested in the literature.