Description:
<jats:p><jats:bold>Abstract.</jats:bold> Recent party research has neglected the analysis of internal party organizations. Taking the central question of how party leaders are selected to study an aspect of intra‐party decision‐making, we carry out a detailed analysis of the regulations and practice of party chairman selection procedure in the Austrian parties over the post‐war period. Although the methods of selection are similar ‐ and similarly oligarchical ‐ the implementation of these formal rules is found to differ both according to the degree of oligarchy exercised in the selection process, and in the priority structure given to the electoral, intra‐party and parliamentary arenas in emphasizing the qualities a leader should have. As traditional party identification declines and the party leader becomes more important for electoral success, the differentiation between the parties increases. We develop an explanation for these differences in terms of a configuration of party characteristics, which may also be useful for examining other aspects of intra‐party decision‐making.</jats:p>