Candidate selection : still a secret garden?

Analyses of candidate selection processes are usually based on either the formal rules included in party statutes or the opinion of party experts. Unlike extant research, this chapter draws on original data from the first wave of the Comparative Candidate Survey in order to measure the determinants of the main dimensions of selection processes in no less than 55 parties in 13 countries. We contribute to the candidate selection literature by analysing comprehensively how individual (hopeful position, gender), meso (district magnitude) and party level variables (age, ideology and membership size) influence the degrees of inclusiveness and decentralisation of the legislative recruitment process. Our regression analyses indicate, among other findings, that the selection of candidates for realistic positions tends to happen more at the central level, the same being true of candidates running in larger district magnitudes. We also observe that recruitment is on average less inclusive in parties with larger membership and more decentralised in older parties