Back Rooms or Ballot Boxes?

Abstract

How political parties select their candidates for public office profoundly affects the types of people who are elected as well as how these people behave in office. This selection process also provides important insights on how parties function internally and on where political power is located within a country. Only a few comparative studies of nomination procedures exist, and none explain why some parties at some points in time select candidates via direct primaries and others do not. The authors analyze an original data set of 610 district-level nomination processes for the biennial Argentine Chamber of Deputies elections held between 1983 and 2001. They conclude that several specific institutional and partisan features have a prominent effect on the probability that a political party will choose its candidates at the ballot box (direct primary) rather than in a smoke-filled back room (elite arrangement).