The formal dimension of candidate selection
by OK
Daniel Hellmann und Benjamin Höhne: Die formale Dimension der Kandidatenaufstellung: Satzungen im Parteien- und Zeitvergleich, in: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen (ZParl), Vol. 51 (2020), Issue 1, pp. 3-25. (DOI: 10.5771/0340-1758-2020-1-3)
Party statutes stipulate their internal rules. Among other things, they address how candidates are selected, who is allowed to nominate candidates, who is eligible to stand as a candidate and which voting procedures apply. For the 2017 Bundestag election, we studied the CDU, CSU, SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke, FDP and AfD statues. As a consequence of Germany’s comparatively rigid legal frame for candidate selection all parties show several similarities but we were also able to identify a few differences. These differences indicate differences in participation culture, e.g. how many members are allowed to nominate candidates, with smaller parties generally being more inclusive than bigger parties. AfD has the lowest grade of formal rules, which is owed to its relative short existence and therefore no need to institutionalize more formal rules. We also compared the aforementioned statues to the 2002 Bundestag election in a longitudinal analysis and concluded remarkable continuity and with only little change.
The article is published in: ZParl, Vol. 51 (2020), Issue 1, pp. 3-25.
