The Adoption, Institutionalization, and Diffusion of Open Primaries. A Comparative Approach (Italy-France)

This article analyses primary elections in France and Italy. In both countries, the main left wing parties—the Socialist Party in France and the Democratic Party in Italy—adopted primary elections for selecting candidates to political offices. What factors explain why party elites choose to democratize their candidate selection procedures? We suggest that the adoption of primaries is mainly an organizational adaptation in the context of an intra-party crisis. The Italian model of “coalition primaries” did not prevail in France where primaries have not been successful at the local level. In France, the Socialist Party primaries are competitive and are used to regulate the fight for the leadership.