Analyzing the Internal Votes in the French Political Parties

Analyzing the internal votes in the French political parties

Since about fifteen years, the political parties multiplied the procedures of internal votes of their members. Then they opened primaries to the non-members. It aims for objective – at first – the revival, the innovation - and the consolidation - of democracy in political organizations. According to organizations, the project of paper suggests reviewing the diverse procedures of vote : nature of the electorate, objectives of the votes, chronology, modalities of vote, participation in intra-party elections, official results and analysis, possible disputes. Beyond an empirical research – which concerns procedures and electoral data – the paper will also review the evolution of the relations between the « party in central office » (politician elites) and the « party on the ground » that shows the development of these votes. Which changes introduces the dévelopment of internal votes in relations top-dow and bottom-up ?

From a more theoretical point of view, it will be important to analyze how these procedures question the oligarchical tendencies of the parties. Besides, in what and how these procedures question the evolutions of parties analyzed more recently by A. Panebianco or P. Mair and R. Katz who underline a professionalization of parties or a monopolization of resources - of all kinds - by elites ?