ON THE ROLE OF THE PRIMARY SYSTEM IN CANDIDATE SELECTION

Abstract

How does the type of the primary system affect political outcomes? We address this issue by constructing a simple model that accounts for intra‐party as well as inter‐party political competition. Our model suggests that allowing non‐partisan voters to participate in the primaries (i.e. a semi‐open primary system ) indeed improves the chances of a moderate candidate getting elected. However, this need not necessarily happen in the case of a completely open primary system . Under such a system there arise multiple equilibria, some of which may lead to a greater degree of extremism than the closed primary system . Thus, our model contributes to the current debate on the choice of primary systems from an analytical perspective and helps explain some of the empirical findings.