Why Some Leaders Die Hard (and Others Don’t) Party Goals, Party Institutions, and How They Interact

This chapter examines the impact of intra-party institutions, electoral and office performance on party leader survival. On the performance side, we find that losing elections and losing government office significantly diminish a leader’s chances to remain in his or her job. Interestingly, there is evidence that suggests that, for both performance indicators, the negative impact of losing is larger than the positive impact of winning. In addition, we demonstrate that inclusive mechanisms of leadership selection and de-selection (i.e. membership votes) reduce the average tenure of party leaders. We also test whether the impact of electoral and office performance varies across selection and de-selection mechanisms, yet we find no evidence that this is the case.