Party Organization, Intra-Party Democracy, and Candidate Selection in Europe

Political parties remain central actors in electoral democracy, yet their internal organization is undergoing profound transformation. Leadership personalization, membership decline, procedural reforms, digitalization, and new models of candidate recruitment are reshaping the internal life of parties across Europe. This panel focuses on party organization as a key dimension of democratic representation, with particular attention to intra-party democracy, candidate and leader selection, and the organizational mechanisms through which parties respond to changing societal and electoral environments. It welcomes contributions examining formal rules and informal practices of party governance, the consequences of selection methods for representation and party cohesion, and the relationship between organizational change and electoral performance. Comparative, longitudinal, and mixed-methods perspectives are especially welcome. The panel also invites reflection on how the systematic collection and harmonization of comparable data and entities can advance cumulative knowledge on party organization and candidate selection across countries.