Political selection: recent developments and new directions

Candidate selection is one of the most important functions of a democratic organisation and the primary mechanism through which political parties decide whether an individual has the qualities needed to become an elected representative. Political selection, more broadly, concerns the ability of a political party to attract, approve and select a pool of talented individuals who will appeal to voters, perform well in elections and in office, and remain loyal to the Party's values. This report describes recent developments in the practices used by political parties to approve and select parliamentary candidates. It provides background for a workshop on political selection in Pristina, Kosovo on 25th March 2019, that will explore how political parties can gain significant advantages by designing candidate approval procedures building on the concept of 'political competence' to identify and develop political leadership talent. The report presents two case studies describing how political parties in the U.K. (i.e. the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrat Party) have developed new candidate approval procedures, the impact of these and lessons learned, and suggests opportunities for political parties in other democracies.

This document is licensed under the Open Government Licence 3.0.