Candidacy Eligibility Criteria and Party Unity. (July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rehmert, Jochen
• Is Part Of: Comparative political studies. Volume 53:Number 8(2020)
• Page Start: 1298
• Page End: 1325
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Subjects: candidate selection -- candidacy -- eligibility criteria -- party unity; Political science -- Periodicals; 320.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897700
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0010-4140

Abstract

Extant research suggests that candidate selection methods can be consequential for party unity in legislative voting. Yet thus far, only variations in the selectorate and the degree of centralization have been examined. This article argues that Candidacy Eligibility Criteria (CEC), too, have implications for party unity. I theorize that with stricter formal requirements, parties avoid adverse selection and ensure the nomination of committed candidates. By using roll-call vote data from 16 industrial democracies, candidate surveys and an original data set consisting of nearly 500 historical party constitutions, I show that parties demanding prior membership and nudging aspirants to maintain networks within the party tend to be more unified in parliamentary voting. Moreover, their candidates, too, express greater loyalty when compared with parties without formal CEC. Thus, this article contributes to the literatures on party unity and on candidate selection by showing how certain party rules, hitherto neglected, affect party unity.