The effect of primaries on voters’ evaluation of candidates’ quality–experimental evidence

In this article, I argue that voters not only rely on characteristics of candidates, such as age and gender, but also on procedural cues to evaluate candidates, particularly on how candidates were selected. I argue that selection via primaries, which has become popular in Western Europe, is an important cue to voters. Drawing on procedural fairness theory, I develop contradicting arguments about how primaries affect voters’ evaluations of candidate quality, such that either the logic of procedural fairness improves voters’ evaluations of candidates’ quality, or the violation thereof through clientelism and vote-buying leads to worse evaluations of candidates. I employ a conjoint experiment, implemented in Spain, and analyze responses to an open-ended question to investigate underlying mechanisms. The findings indicate that voters perceive candidates resulting out of primaries as outsiders, who are less corrupt but also less experienced and less competent.