Legislative Recruitment And Electoral System Change: The Case Of Romania

Abstract: This paper analyzes the transformations in Romanian parties’legislative recruitment strategies that are likely to occur with the change in the electoral system, by looking at the 2008 parliamentary elections and the data gathered from questionnaires with the new MPs. The main finding is a general move towards more local patronage-oriented recruitment, determined by the importance in this process of local party officials (presidents of county councils and mayors) as well as of private sponsors. The new electoral system seems to decrease the chances of women getting elected, while parties chose to delegate much of the campaigning costs, thus favoring well-to-do candidates. Scores of decentralization and inclusiveness of selectorates are computed and the article proposes a series of explanations for the intra-party mutations since 2004, when the last empirical study was conducted on the Romanian legislative recruitment.