Party Primaries for Candidate Selection? Right Question, Wrong Answer

Abstract

Moves to adapt the US primary system for candidate selection are afoot in the common law world, against a backdrop of political malaise. This paper critically explores the genesis of this development and different models of adaptation. It contrasts the legal and social conception of a membership-based party in the common law tradtion, with the weak, US model of a political party, where 'membership' is transitory, transactionalised and public.

Problems with primaries are ultimately not ones of legal, let alone constitutional, form or limits. They are problems in the (mis)matching of ends and means in the design of political institutions. The primary is a paradoxical method to appeal to if the goal is to reinvigorate parties.

Keywords: Political Parties, Candidate Selection, Electoral Law, Constitutional Law, Freedom of Association