Party Organization and Electoral Competition

We propose a model in which two parties select the internal organization that helps them win the election. Party choices provide incentives to the politicians who represent them. Depending on whether politicians are opportunistic or partisan, we identify four effects. First, a selection effect: intr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of law, economics, & organization economics, & organization, 2010-08, Vol.26 (2), p.212-242
Main Authors: Crutzen, Benoît S. Y., Castanheira, Micael, Sahuguet, Nicolas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Candidates
Competition
Economic competition
Elections
Electoral behaviour
Electoral campaigning
Europe
Ideology
Organizational change
Organizational structure
Political candidates
Political elections
Political ideologies
Political ideology
Political parties
Political partisanship
Political science
Politicians
Studies
U.S.A
Voters
Voting
Voting trust
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Summary:We propose a model in which two parties select the internal organization that helps them win the election. Party choices provide incentives to the politicians who represent them. Depending on whether politicians are opportunistic or partisan, we identify four effects. First, a selection effect: intraparty competition gives parties more candidates to choose from. Second, an incentive effect: intraparty competition adds a hurdle and impacts on candidates' incentives. Third, a trust effect: because of the incentive effect, intraparty competition is a signal to uninformed voters. Finally, with partisan preferences, an ideology effect appears. Ideology is a public good in a competitive party and induces free riding. Intraparty competition is valuable when voters are badly informed or intraparty competition is weak. These results rationalize the introduction of direct primaries in the United States, the organizational changes in Western European parties since 1960, and the organizational differences between centrist and extreme parties. (JEL D23, D72, D81)
ISSN:8756-6222
1465-7341
DOI:10.1093/jleo/ewp019