Pär Zetterberg

Political Parties and Gender Quota Implementation The Role of Institutionalized Candidate Selection Procedures

This article scrutinizes the role of political parties in gender quota implementation. First, it theoretically specifies and operationalizes the concept of bureaucratization in relation to candidate selection. Second, it examines whether parties with bureaucratized selection procedures are better at implementing legally mandated candidate quotas than other parties. We measure implementation as the number of women candidates and women elected (the latter measuring implementation of the spirit of quota laws). Using unique data on almost 100 Latin American parties, the analysis shows that once quotas are in place, parties with bureaucratized selection procedures put substantially more women on their candidate lists than other parties. However, these parties are only better at implementing the letter of the law: they do not get more women elected.

Electoral quotas and political representation : Comparative perspectives

Electoral quotas have emerged as one of the critical political reforms of the last two decades, affecting a wide range of representative processes. However, the evidence is not yet conclusive with regard to what quotas ‘mean’ more broadly, either for politics at large or for the empowerment of group members. Taking up this challenge, this special issue brings together articles that collectively expand the current research agenda to theorise and assess the wider impact of electoral quotas. A unifying theme is the use of comparative research strategies to illuminate dynamics indicating the possibilities and limits of what quotas can achieve. This introductory article reviews the existing literature and then details the research strategies and theoretical and empirical findings of the articles that follow, concluding with directions for future research and implications of this work for connecting central debates within political science.

WHY ARE REPRESENTATIONAL GUARANTEES ADOPTED FOR WOMEN AND MINORITIES? COMPARING CONSTITUENCY FORMATION AND ELECTORAL QUOTA DESIGN WITHIN COUNTRIES

This article explores the underlying motives for ensuring the political inclusion of marginalised groups. More specifically, it analyses whether laws guaranteeing representation are designed differently for women and minorities and, if so, whether these differences correspond to normative arguments for group representation. We use a novel research strategy by comparing quota designs in all countries that have adopted quotas for both groups. Theoretically, we reconceptualise the relevant distinction between quota types by focusing on whether a special constituency is created or not. We identify substantial differences in quota design between the two groups. Minorities tend to be guaranteed representation through the creation of special constituencies, whereas gender quotas more commonly imply integration into pre-existing constituencies. The analysis largely supports those who argue that quotas for minorities aim to increase the autonomy of the group in question while gender quotas are adopted with the intention to integrate women into the political system.

Analysing Failure, Understanding Success: A Research Strategy for Explaining Gender Equality Policy Adoption

One of the major challenges within feminist research is to understand the conditions under which gender equality policies are adopted. This article addresses the issue from a methodological point of view: it suggests that previous research on gender equality policy adoption has mostly focused on “successful” cases, and it presents a research strategy for systematically analysing opposition and “failed” attempts at gender equality policy adoption, that is, reform attempts that have not become laws or regulations. A closer analysis of failure is important for understanding success: we cannot be sure that the factors identified as conducive to gender equality reform are really missing in unsuccessful reform attempts unless we pay explicit attention to such attempts. The research strategy suggests three issues that should be addressed: (1) specify and select “unsuccessful” cases, (2) focus explicitly on resistance to the reform proposal, and (3) conduct a dynamic analysis of the strategies of proponents and opponents. We illustrate the research strategy by making use of a failed attempt at reform in the Swedish labour market: the individualization of the parental leave system.

The Dynamic Relationship between Gender Quotas and Political Institutions

Scholars of gender quotas have paid increasing attention to the ways in which formal and informal institutions shape the outcome of this electoral reform (Hassim 2009; Jones 2009; Zetterberg 2009). Quotas, however, are not only affected by the institutional context in which they are adopted; their transformative nature also implies that they (should) contribute to changing political institutions. This dynamic relationship has consequences for the analysis of key institutions within representative democracy: Electoral quotas may, in some cases, challenge well-defined analytical frameworks and established ways to study political life. This essay aims to demonstrate theoretically how quota adoption exerts an impact on established political structures and thus challenges existing understandings within subfields of comparative politics. More specifically, I bring up two institutions within representative democracy that are likely to be affected by quotas: the political recruitment process and intraparty politics within legislative institutions.

INTRODUCTION: GENDER QUOTAS AND WOMEN'S REPRESENTATION—NEW DIRECTIONS IN RESEARCH

This article introduces the special issue and places the contributions in context. It begins with a brief discussion of main trends in quota research to date, focusing on major findings in relation to gender quotas and womens political representation. It then presents an overview of the articles in the special issue, detailing their research strategies and theoretical and empirical findings. The final part of the section addresses the implications of these studies – and work on gender quotas more generally – for forging new research agendas on political representation.

The Gendered Leeway : Male Privilege, Internal and External Mandates, and Gender Equality Policy Change

ABSTRACT This article addresses the question of why male politicians continue to be relatively unlikely to act in favor of gender-equality policy change, despite the advances in gender equality in recent decades. Drawing together literature on men and masculinities, feminist institutionalism and women’s substantive representation, we present a theoretical argument in which we distinguish between an internal and an external mandate to push for gender-equality policy change. We argue that both these mandates apply to female politicians but not to their male colleagues. As a consequence, a gendered leeway exists: men have more leeway than women in political maneuvering. We illustrate this argument by analyzing high-ranked party representatives within the self-labelled feminist Swedish Social Democratic Party. This article contributes theoretically to the launching of a research agenda on the role of men in processes of gender-equality policy adoption.

Gender Quotas and the Re(pro)duction of Corruption

Bjarnegard, Yoon, and Zetterberg’s chapter examines whether electoral gender quotas reduce or reproduce corruption. The chapter suggests that quotas may reduce corruption only if they provide a clean slate, i.e., if quota candidates are recruited from new networks and are given their own mandate to act on a range of issues once in parliament. However, quotas are likely to instead reproduce corruption if quota candidates are recruited from existing networks and are expected to protect an already corrupt party line. The authors apply the theoretical framework to an empirical case—Tanzania—and suggest that the latter scenario is most likely in stable electoral authoritarian regimes.

Political parties, formal selection criteria, and gendered parliamentary representation:

Political parties sometimes set up formal criteria to define the pool of potential candidates. This article represents the first large-scale comparative analysis of potential unintended gendered consequences of these formal selection criteria for parliamentary representation. Using unique data on 101 political parties in 32 African, Asian, and postcommunist European countries, we find that there is indeed a relationship between formal selection criteria and men’s and women’s political representation. Criteria that concern ethnic or geographic background and intraparty experiences are harmful to women. On the other hand, gendered consequences are not as pronounced as a result of criteria concerning qualifications or requirements in relation to electability. Taken together, the analysis points to the need to pay increased attention to formal selection criteria and how this under-researched aspect of candidate selection shapes the parliamentary representation of underrepresented groups.