Resumen

OTERO FELIPE, Patricia. Selection of Candidates in Panamanian Parties: Primaries and its Impacts on the Revolutionary Democratic Party. Polít. gob [online]. 2008, vol.15, n.2, pp.271-314. ISSN 1665-2037.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the methods of candidate selection taking into account in the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) of Panama in the last decade. This political party carried out organizational reforms in its effort to adapt to democracy and to separate from the military regime. Primaries to select candidates are one of the most significant reforms. This political system is defined by few programmatic differences, clientelism, and personalism; all of them are interesting features to analyze the effects of primaries on the main party of Panama. In this sense, the work reflects on the impacts of primaries. There are two important impacts of primaries: the change of dominant coalition and, on the other hand, the alteration of patterns of re-election in the legislative group.

Palabras llave : Panama; Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD); candidates' selection methods; primaries; dominant coalition.