With or without parliamentary primaries? Some evidence from the Italian laboratory

In the last 10 years, Italy has slowly and quite unexpectedly become the European home of primary elections. On the eve of the 2013 legislative elections, three political parties decided, for the first time, to use primaries as the main method of candidate selection. The aim of this article is to analyse some of the characteristics and consequences of the parliamentary primaries in terms of the socio-demographic composition of Parliament and the behaviour of MPs. The evidence provided by the Italian experience shows that inclusive selectorates seem to promote a higher level of female representation in the assembly and the inclusion of younger people. As far as the legislative behaviour of MPs is concerned, parliamentarians selected through primaries show the highest rates of attendance. Finally, with regard to the level of productivity and the frequency of rebellion, the results of our analysis do not lead to any clear conclusions. However, interestingly enough, MPs selected through inclusive processes demonstrate a lower propensity to vote against the agreed positions of their parliamentary groups.