Selecting the Leader in Italy and Spain

The preliminary aim of the article is illustrating the procedures of leadership selection in Italy and Spain, which have faced quite different paths of evolution from this point of view. The main object is nonetheless trying to assess whether open primary elections are more likely to give rise to divisive leadership races compared to less inclusive procedures of selection such as closed primaries or party Congresses. To this end I compare six races to select the party chairman and/or the chief executive candidate promoted by the Italian Democratic Party and the Spanish PSOE during the last years. The empirical analysis does not provide evidences of a positive relationship between inclusiveness and divisiveness, since the candidates who run in open primaries generally maintain moderate attitudes during the campaign, while the front-runner supported by the elite is able to succeed with a significant advantage over the other contenders.