How many other democracies even have primaries?

[MoonRiver]

Seems to me that most of the various parties' nominees are determined by (party) insiders.
:shrug:

[Kutjara]

1. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Most countries take a hell of a lot less time choosing a new government, too. In the UK, for example, a General Election must be held within one month of the date on which it's called. Candidates only have 30 days to bore everyone senseless with their empty promises and mealy-mouthed equivocations. Then the three people in the country who actually bother to vote cast their ballots for the candidate with the nicest teeth. So that part is pretty much the same as here, really.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

2. Another difference: Most other democracies have more than two parties

I'm glad we have primaries, but I wish we had more than two major parties.

[thesubstanceofdreams]

3. Lots of countries have primaries, actually

France comes to mind, just to give an example.
I know of no other country with such long and convoluted primaries, however. Usually it's just a national election held on a single day and decided by a majority (or plurality) of the vote.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. National primaries are only relevant with an elected president

France, as noted above, has them (though I think they may be a recent introduction there) - and it has a directly elected, powerful president. Ireland's president isn't so powerful, and tends not to be directly tied to a party so much.

For parliamentary systems, choosing the leader of a party would be the equivalent - not tied to an election date, of course. In the UK, the major parties use various combinations of member votes (who pay a small membership fee), MP/MEP votes, and trade union member votes, in the case of Labour. Sort of the equivalent - last time they changed leaders, the Tories started off with several candidates, and whittled them down to 2, before the final choice was made, for instance.