Candidate Selection: Explorations beyond the Secret Garden of Politics - The Case of Belgium

Candidate selection is often described as “the secret garden of politics” (Gallagher & Marsh, 1988). This research confirms this scholarly statement and even adds that the garden is full of “muddy waters”. We have studied the case of Belgian legislative elections of 2007, in particular selection for the Lower House. Our analyses show that candidate selection processes involve multiple (mostly collective) actors. Requirements for aspirant candidates are less strong than in the previous decades. Candidate selection actors are therefore freer when taking their decision about lists composition. On the basis of a solid crosscheck of different sources of information, we have built a six- categories scale, ranking each Belgian party selection mode from the most exclusive to the most inclusive. Based on this scale, the paper asks the question of the importance of the mode of selection. Does candidate selection really matter? Our results confirm that selection matters in many respects. More exclusive selection modes favour more experienced candidates, and encourage candidates to adopt a representational focus on the constituency and party-at-large electorates. Conversely inclusive selectorates tend to select candidates being more congruent with their voters, in terms of self-positioning on the left – right scale