Selecting candidates through deliberation: the effects for Demos in Romania

Abstract

Over the last two decades, several Romanian political parties advertised inclusive and open candidate selection but often ended up with decisions taken by central-level elites. Demos, a party formed in 2018, is the first to use deliberative democracy for candidate selection. The deliberation included the party members and took place online in December 2018–January 2019, with several moderators and facilitators coming from the party ranks. This article analyses the effects produced by this deliberation process for the internal life of the party and for its external image. The analysis uses interviews conducted with party members who coordinated or were actively involved in the deliberation process.