Intra-party democracy entails different meanings. Considering democratic candidate selection processes, one may think about various elements contributing to its democratic character. By means of lexical and content analysis, this paper aims at contrasting definitions given to intra-party democracy in terms of candidate selection by political actors and by scholars. The analysis draws on in-depth interviews with key party actors. The 2014 'mother of all elections' provides an interesting case to study since three elections are held concurrently (regional, national and European). The combination of three levels of election and the broad political landscape in Belgium - 11 parties are covered in this paper - allows for a compared conceptualization based on differentiated candidate selection mechanisms. Parties indeed vary a lot in this respect, going from an intensive consultation of party members towards a selection by party leaders. Overall the paper contributes to the ongoing debate about what intraparty democracy means.
