How Political Primaries Have Fanned Britain's Dysfunction

choi

Max Fisher, How Political Primaries Have Fanned Britain's Dysfunction. New York Times, Oct 24, 2022, at page A10 (under the heading "The Interpreter," which NYT says is "A column and newsletter by Max Fisher and Amanda Taub").
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/ ... s-conservative.html

My comment:
(a) Paragraphs 3 to 1o are reproduced below.
(b) I consider the commentary elitist. Besides, the British "primary" -- similar to Taiwan's party leadership contest -- is decided by "due-paying members." In United States, states (not political parties) hold party primaries, and state laws, generally speaking, fall into two camps: open and closed primary. See primary election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_election
(section 1 Types, section 1.2 United States, section 1.2.1 Closed primary + section 1.2.3 Open primary)
But every registered voter may vote, due payment irrelevant.
------------------------------------------------
As in most parliamentary democracies, British parties, for the most of their history, chose their leaders, and therefore the prime minister, through a poll of their party officials.

But in recent elections, Britain has shifted that power to party bases, which now select party leaders in election somewhat like those held in the United States for party nominations.

This was intended to empower voters over back-room party bosses, elevating politicians who would be more representative and therefore more electable, But the consequences have been very different.

As in the United States, British primary voters tend to be more ideologically fervent and less inclined to moderation than are party bosses or the median party supporter, survey finds.

This has, in both countries, tended to elevate candidates who are more extreme, with research suggesting that the effect has been to make politics more polarized and dysfunctional. Ms [Liz] Truss, and the [financial] policies that seemingly ended her brief tenure, have become prime examples [I fail to understand why plural is used here].

Britain's Conservative Party selects leaders first by winnowing down candidates [to two] in the traditional way: voting party lawmakers [MPs]. In four out of five such rounds, Ms Truss was only the third-most selected candidate. In the fifth round, she came in second to Rishi Sunajk, who is seen as more moderate.

But, since 2001, the party has put its final two leadership candidates candidates to a vote among due-paying members. Ms Truss's libertarian ideas were seen as risky and extreme among party officials. But they were embraced by primary voers, who chose her over Mr Sunak.

Those voters -- about 172,000 of them -- bear little resemblance to the average Briton. Roughly two in three are male. Two in five are 65 or older, double the proportion in the general population. Three in four voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum, compared with only 52 percent of Britons, and 58 percent of all Conservative supporters.