Part 3: Electoral systems and Quotas

District magnitude

the # of legislative seats assigned to a district

• more seats per marty means including women would cost them less

Majoritarian

where most votes win

• two first rounds, first past the post, rank choice/alternative vote

• NEED MAJORITY

• Always know who you are voting for BEFORE bc their name is on the ballot

Proportional

Seats allocated according to the SHARE of votes won

• EX: 25% vote = 25% of seats

• Open vs closed lists

• vote for the candidate, party or both

• mixed systems

Closed list

YOU ARE VOTING FOR PARTY

• voters accept rank list of the party

• parties are key selectorates for their representation

  • voters don’t choose, parties do

• Allows parties to prioritize diversity

• Party has a LOT more power

• Don’t have to campaign yourself

Open lists

YOU ARE VOTING FOR THE INDIVIDUAL

• advantage is individual resources can be used to boost candidacy

• ranked & unranked

• tend to be more common

• Voters can discriminate bet. individuals

• Individuals have to campaign their own traits (good if ur popular and have lots of resources )

Tyoes of quotas

1. Legislative (Certain amount of candidates MUST be women)

2. Party

3. Reserved seats (seats in the election reserved for a particular type of candidate)

Why quotas??

• Target mobilization of women’s interest

  • showing women their opinion is valued

• Strategic interests within the system or between parties

• Coincide with party ideological norms

• International best practice and external influence

  • authoritarians do gender quotas to make themselves seem more democratic

Used to benefit women AND men. It can’t be 100% women on the ballot either

Green parties

focused on helping the people & the planet

• Equality between men and women

Legislative quotas

• Parties KNOW they will gain strategically if they put women in their list support

• More effective

Placement mandate

Rule that says where on the ballot a women needs to be placed

• ZIPPER (Gender rotates every spot)

• Rank rules (Top 2 candidates can’t be the same gender)

• Dispersion (1 in every 3 needs to be women)

Rank & Dispersion DO NOT guarantee women!

Enforcement

Most common is financial penalties

• If you don’t meet the quota, you pay a fine

• About 13%

Also, rejection of list

• you can’t compete in the election if you don’t follow the quotas

• about 57%

The puzzle of quotas

• Quotas are in 100+ Countries

• Nearly 80 national parliaments (BOTH HOUSES) use quotas

Advocates predict…

• Quotas allow more diverse women

• There’s more attention to women issues on the agenda

• Mobilizes women votes

  • more women= more women votes

Opponents predict…

• “Unqualified women” are elected

• Reinforced stereotypes

  • women that are elected are forced to be there

  • “Quota women”

• Demobilized ordinary women

Pitkin’s framework applied to quotas

The route into office shapes expectations, so finding from non-quota settings can’t be applied uniformly to quota cases

• who is elected

• do they act for women?

• What do quotas for citizens?

Two gates to office

• a 50% list can still produce a male-dominated legislature

  • Quota doesn’t mean women will actually be represented, they have to go through steps

• Rules shapes demand

Single member districts

• One slot (One person can be elected)

• Zero-sum (one person wins, one loses)

• Parties pick the “safe candidate”

PR/Multi member lists

parties can balance the ticket and signal diversity

Longer lists

more types of people can be elected

• larger parties can elect more women

Caveat

Strong-cross national correlation, but culture and party ideology mediate it

• open lists

  • parties feel less pressure to place women high

• Closed lists

Competition, fragmentation, and context

the way parties compete (middle or periphery)

• More competitive, fragmented systems push parties to TARGET UNDER-REPRESENTED VOTERS

• Niche right parties don’t care about women so they do the opposite

• Quotas have the greatest impact under PR (Closed lists & High district magnitude)

• Left parties and group representation do better

European parliament (EP)

One legislature, huge variation in national election rules, party systems, culture

• still one of the most gender equal legislatures

  • how much of this is shaped by quotas?

The argument in Aldrich (2018)

• Parties differ in their ability to act on incentives

• Effects of rules, strategy, and quotas depend on WHO CONTROLS THE LIST

• Centralized (elite discretion, higher baseline, selection into quotas, measurement)

  • Executive has final approval in the statue

• Decentralized (Rules and quotas matter)

  • A member-represented body approves the list

• Centralized alone has NO CLEAR EFFECT; it can help or hurt depending on what elites want

Quotas use growth (uneven)

• Left groups (socialists, greens, left)

  • steady growth

• Right groups (Liberals, christian democrats, nationalists)

  • much less predictable

• Non-quota parties

  • no relationship

Substantive representation

Quotas associated with a sharp rise in women-friendly proposals, but rarely different outcomes

• Mandate vs Label

Mandate

Expectation and felt obligation to advance women’s outcomes

Label

stigma leads some to distance themselves from “women’s issues”

Symbolic representation

Effects are diffuse, lagged, and vary by audience

Descriptive representation

• quotas can still overrepresent elites

• “Tokens”

• Powerful men can marginalize women

• France & Uganda: quota women are as competent as men in the office

• Argentina: gendered career patterns persist, but no sign of inferiority

Gender mainstreaming

integrating a gender perspective into all shapes of policy and program development

Trip chaining

linking multiple stops for care and errands into one journey rather than a single commute

Second shift

employed women doing most house work can do care work after paid work

Do men and women make different choices about becoming candidates when facing an identical problem

Whether a participant volunteers to be a candidate

how do gender stereotypes impact candidate evaluations

indices summing evaluations of the candidates

Why does the share of women on party lists vary so much across parties, not just across countries

percent women on each party’s electoral list

what explains US states extended the vote to women

Whether (and when) a state legislative extended the vote to women

How is women’s representation limited by outright hostility, double standards, and a double bind

A measure of women’s representation