Leadership Selection in Six Western Democracies

Arising out of his doctoral research into presidential primary elections at a time when these had only a marginal effect on presidential nominations, Professor Davis, convinced that this initial stage is crucial in the democratic governing process, extended his interest to the selection of party political leaders in the UK, Germany, France, Canada and Australia. This pioneering comparative study contrasts the party‐dominated procedures in the UK, Germany and France, with the more open system operating in the USA and Canada. Australian leadership selection he describes as “perhaps the most hard‐edged and, in a sense, brutal among the Western democracies”, citing...