Recruitment and Recruitment Strategies

The study of political parties ¹ considers the recruitment of candidates for the top constitutional offices, alongside the articulation and the aggregation of various interests, as one of the parties’ three most important functions within a modern party democracy. ² It is an undisputed fact in the political science literature ³ dealing with Austria that it is the political parties that select the candidates for all constitutional organs. This is true for all legislative bodies at the national and regional levels, from Parliament to the state diets, as well as for all executive offices from the federal and state governments down to the mayors and portfolio-bearing councilmen in larger communities. In many cases this also applies for the top administrative offices, all the way to the county presidents, and even the courts of public law such as the Constitutional and Administrative Courts. Local government only feels this influence to a very limited degree, particularly in smaller communities, where “candidate lists” are a common occurrence and on the increase.