Are there any lessons to be learnt by European parties from the Democratic primary?

Résumé du document

There has never been as much interest in Europe for the American primaries as this year. The debate is being analyzed. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been portrayed in newspapers every single day during the primaries this year. A page is dedicated to the primaries in all the websites. The fact that the selection of the Democrat candidate looks like no other one before, may explain the growing interest it has generated in Europe. First, there has never been as much suspense as this year. Every time a candidate seems to benefit from a momentum, it loses the next caucus or primary. Barack Obama at the beginning of the process and Hillary Clinton more recently contradicted the expected results. Then, the stakes of the election are huge. The possible future president of the United States will have to deal with a series of serious issues like climate change, terrorism, proliferation and so on. No wonder the world watches the nomination process. Finally, European political parties may learn lessons concerning the selection of their candidates for national elections.

Extraits

[...] Most European voters still vote for ideas more than for a specific candidate because the differences between parties are huger than those between Democrats and Republicans. Moreover ideas were considered as dangerous by the Founding Fathers (because linked to ideology and demagogy) so an election on reputation and personality is given value. Therefore the acrimonious fight and personal attacks between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton should not keep European parties to organize primaries. The systems are so different that no clear lesson can be learnt by European political parties from this specific experience. [...]

[...] The high intensity of the fight may have serious consequences in this period of cult of image. The importance of the resentment could provoke a deep division in the Democrat family that could last until the presidential elections. The endorsement phenomenon is a good illustration: personalities such as Ted Kennedy or John Kerry do not support Obama but join him. The positions taken by each candidate may fuel the other team's resentment, jeopardizing the needed final unity. This could be avoided in the future or the risk could at least be diminished by modifying the nomination process. [...]

[...] The American primaries are considered by many of these parties as a model of democracy. But the acrimonious fight and personal attacks between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton may change the minds of their leaders. The current situation in the US is yet rather clear: the economy is in recession, the president is unpopular and there are expensive conflicts going on. Many European parties in the opposition would like to be in such a situation. However the Democrats could manage to let a Republican succeed to G.W. [...]

[...] However these European parties should not forget that the American electoral system is highly different from the European ones. First there is no European country where only two big parties compete against each other. Secondly all European national elections are direct elections whereas these are delegates who elect the President of the United States. Thirdly the expenditures of the candidates in the US cannot be compared to the budget for the national campaigns in Europe. For all these reasons each European party interested in organizing a primary should adapt the American system more than copy it. [...]

[...] Moreover the late nomination gives an opportunity to the opponent parties to use the internal oppositions. The key question is: how to express its differences without being exposed to the criticisms of other parties? The current situation in the USA shows how acute this question is: how to bring together all the Democrats behind the candidate they combated during so many months? This is vital that the candidate who was not nominated accepts his defeat and rallies the official candidate at the end of the nomination process. [...]