The Latin American experience suggests primary elections can be effective but not a magic recipe for party democratisation

Both Labour and the Conservatives have been experimenting with primary elections to select candidates, as a means of reconnecting their parties with the electorate at a time of diminishing membership levels. There are lessons to be learned from countries around the world that use primaries. In this post, Flavia Freidenberg and Julia Pomares discuss the experience of Latin America, where a range of different systems for candidate selection are in place.