ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the goals of the book, prompted by three basic questions: Are new parties that emerged during the crisis implementing open and inclusive ways of selecting legislative candidates? Are the “new” selection mechanisms being incorporated by mainstream parties in a “contagion” effect? Are the new selection practices producing changes in the social structure of parliaments? The Great Recession is understood as the background from which the research questions originate. The chapter uses New Institutionalism in organizational theory to frame changes introduced in parties qua organizations to select their legislative candidates. Offering a plan of the book, the chapter ends with a summary of each chapter putting results in a comparative perspective.
