The limits of party change: Candidate selection in Portugal in the age of crisis

External shocks, such as the crisis that affected Southern European countries, are expected to foster organizational reforms in parties, in particular the way political elites are recruited. This chapter addresses this problem and presents new evidence on the relationship between the process of candidate selection and the crisis, drawing on the Portuguese case. This case study challenges conventional wisdom on the political impact of the Eurozone crisis for two main reasons. First, it displays remarkable stability in party system characteristics and, second, mainstream parties have not implemented any significant organizational reform. However, our analysis also suggests that parties have increased their proportion of MPs with a higher level of civic engagement. Finally, the crisis seems to be irrelevant in terms of ideological homogeneity.