ABSTRACT
Primary elections are increasingly used to select legislative candidates in new democracies around the world. The chapter presents a theory that explains the likely dynamics of three common types of nomination procedures in new democracies where ideology is not a central feature of elections. It introduces the Ghanaian case before documenting and analyzing the evolution of candidate selection since democratization in 1992. The chapter explores material from empirical papers on primary elections in Ghana and discusses broader implications of primary elections for party institutionalization in new democracies. Ichino and Nathan required reconstructing the record of primary elections in Ghana largely from scratch in the absence of reliable official data. But it is also the result of an absence of theoretical frameworks appropriate for candidate selection methods for elections without spatial competition. The chapter reflects on the likely costs and benefits of candidate selection methods that have been commonly used to choose legislative nominees in the African countries.
