Democratizing a Democratic Procedure: Myth or Reality?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse whether democratization of the candidate selection process has occurred in Western European parties in general and in Denmark in particular in the period from 1960 to 1990. The analysis is based on the party rules in force around 1960 and 1990 of 57 and 71 Western European parties, respectively. The general assumption is that the greater the role of the individual party member, the more democratically the parties conduct their internal affairs and, furthermore, the more decentralized the procedure, the greater the possibilities for individual party members to play a role. The analysis indicates that the candidate selection process was more decentralized and the role of the individual party member in the process were greater at the beginning of the 1990s than they were around 1960.