Leadership change

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyses the relationship between candidate turnover and change in party leadership—one of the most visible dimensions of internal party change. Existing studies on party leaders have largely focused on the increasing (electoral) importance of leaders as well as their selection and survival, and less on how these impact on parties internally. However, a change in leadership can signal or lead to changes in policy and organization. Using a quasi-quantitative scale, this chapter distinguishes between more significant forms of leadership change (outsiders taking over) and more trivial forms (insiders replacing incumbents). Overall, leadership change is associated with higher candidate turnover when the new leader has significant novelty; deputy leaders and heirs apparent becoming party leaders do not affect candidate turnover to the same extent. In fissions and fusions, higher candidate congruence between slates (i.e. parties, electoral coalitions, and other formations) generally corresponds to higher leadership congruence.