Intra-party Competition: District Nomination of the Candidates for the Federal Elections 2009

这个适应项目涉及代议制民主国家的政治竞争，更准确地说，是德国的党内竞争。通常，政治学家专注于政党之间的民主竞争，因此将政治竞争与选举联系起来。但在德国，与其他民主国家一样，在许多情况下，党际竞争被党内竞争所掩盖。党内提名对德国联邦议院的人事组成仍然至关重要，因为大多数候选人在提名之日就知道他们是否会成为议员。但是，尽管党内竞争和候选人提名很重要，但几乎没有任何关于这一主题的研究。该项目希望有助于更好地了解德国提名过程和党内竞争的核心微观机制。该项目的中心问题是：哪些因素和机制塑造了德国党内竞争的结构及其结果？这个问题将通过分析2009年联邦选举地区一级的党内竞争和遴选过程来进行实证研究。这项研究集中在三个核心方面：第一，项目询问哪些因素和机制影响选区党内竞争的程度和形式。其次，本项目旨在分析党内竞争的组织及其机制。第三，该项目对中央个人资源和(成功的)有抱负的人的特点和选择标准感兴趣。为了分析党内竞争，采用了参与者观察、文献分析和面对面访谈相结合的方法。

This habilitation project deals with political competition in representative democracies, more precisely with intra-party competition in Germany. Typically, political scientists focus on democratic competition between parties and thus, identify political competition with elections. But in Germany as in other democracies in many cases inter-party competition is overshadowed by intra-party competition. Intra-party nomination is still crucial for the personnel composition of the German Bundestag since the majority of the candidates know at the day of nomination whether they will become a Member of Parliament or not. But despite the importance of intra-party competition and candidate nomination, there has been hardly any research on this topic. This project wants to contribute to a better understanding of the central micro-mechanisms structuring the nomination process and intra-party competition in Germany. The central question of the project is: Which factors and mechanisms shape the structure of intra-party competition and its results in Germany? This question will be examined empirically by analyzing intra-party competition and selection processes on the district level for the federal elections 2009. The study focuses on three central aspects: First, the project asks which factors and mechanisms influence degree and form of intra-party competition in electoral districts. Second, the project aims to analyze the organization of intra-party competition and its mechanisms. Third, the project is interested in central individual resources and characteristics of (successful) aspirants and selection criteria. In order to analyze intra-party competition a combination of different methods participant observation, document analysis, and face-to-face interviews is used.