Richard E. Matland

The Contagion of Women Candidates in Single-Member District and Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Canada and Norway

There is a distinct gap in womens representation in national legislatures between countries with single-member district electoral systems and those with proportional representation electoral systems. While this gap has been well documented, there have been only limited attempts at explaining its existence. After reviewing the literature on the representation gap, we turn to the party change literature and propose a modified contagion theory as one possible explanation for the gap. Contagion theory suggests that traditional parties will feel pressured to nominate more women if one of their political rivals, usually a smaller party farther to the left, starts to promote representation of women. We distinguish between macrocontagion and microcontagion and argue that especially microcontagion is more likely to occur in party list proportional representation systems than in single-member district systems. This should be true because contagion pressures are more likely to develop, and the costs of adapting to these pressures are less, in party list proportional representation systems. We formally test for microcontagion at the electoral district level in Canada and Norway, both leaders among their type of electoral systems in female representation. The data confirm our hypothesis by showing no indication of microcontagion in Canada, but evidence of such an effect in Norway.

Women's Representation in National Legislatures: Developed and Developing Countries

This note expands research on representation of women in national legislatures. Existing models are tested on newer data in advanced industrialized democracies, and these models are then applied to a sample of democracies in developing countries. There are striking differences across the two samples. While a proportional representation electoral system, womens participation in the labor force, the cultural standing of women, and the countrys level of development all have positive effects on female representation in OECD democracies, none of these variables have a statistically significant and positive effect in less developed countries. These findings strongly suggest the existence of a threshold. Only after that threshold is passed do proportional representation, labor force participation, and cultural standing exert positive influences on the representation of women.

Institutional Variables Affecting Female Representation in National Legislatures: The Case of Norway

A controversy exists over whether district magnitude, the number of seats per district, has a positive effect on female representation. This study considers district magnitudes effect on female representation in Norway over a 40-year period. The data analysis finds that party magnitude, the size of a partys district delegation, is a more powerful explanatory factor than district magnitude. Party magnitudes effect appears to follow a cycle. Prior to demands for representation being raised, party magnitude has little effect. As women mobilize and representation demands are raised party magnitude plays a significant role, but once women are firmly entrenched as powerful players in party politics, party magnitudes effect decreases. This formulation is consistent with the Norwegian findings and also explains why previous cross-sectional research has produced inconsistent findings. In addition, the crucial role that candidate nomination processes play in explaining the high levels of representation found in Norway is described.

SEX AND THE GRAND OLD PARTY An Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Candidate Sex on Support for a Republican Candidate

We report the results of an experiment involving 820 randomly sampled adults. Half heard about a female Republican candidate for Congress. The other half learned of an otherwise identical male candidate. Democrat and Independent voters were more likely to trust, think qualified, view as a leader, and vote for the female Republican (contrasted with the male Republican). On the other hand, being female led to associations that hurt Republican women within their own party. We augment our experimental results by providing evidence that Republican women have done significantly worse than Democratic women in winning nominations in open-seat congressional districts.

Determinants of Legislative Turnover: A Cross-National Analysis

Two decades of turnover data were collected for the national legislature of twenty-five industrialized countries. After a discussion of turnovers significance, we compare turnover rates across countries. A set of variables expected to influence turnover rates is described and multiple regression is used to test the hypotheses developed. Results show that frequency of elections, opportunity for double listings, electoral volatility and legislative institutionalization have statistically significant effects on turnover. In addition the type of electoral system (majoritarian versus proportional representation) is shown to have a statistically and substantively significant effect, with turnover much greater in the latter. Possible explanations for this effect are explored.

Just deserts: An experimental study of distributive justice norms

efficiency-under a condition of impartiality. Our experiments are designed to investigate these principles and to determine how independent factors influence how individuals use them. We find that individuals tend to use all or most of these principles simultaneously in making distributive justice judgments, but that they weigh them differently according to various factors. In particular, we find an expectedly strong difference between how women and men use and weigh

Electoral System Effects on Women’s Representation. Theoretical Arguments and Evidence From Costa Rica

This study considers the effects of electoral system structure on womens representation in national legislatures. Research done in Western Europe finds womens representation is positively affected by party magnitude; tests for similar effects in Costa Rica are done and confirm this hypothesis. The effects of electoral thresholds are also considered. The Costa Rican electoral threshold increases disproportionality and enhances the likelihood of producing parliamentary majorities, as expected. Moving beyond these traditional findings, the threshold also has a positive effect on the descriptive representativeness of the legislature by increasing party magnitudes and thereby increasing the representation of women. The study ends by suggesting the electoral studies field needs to expand its evaluation criteria to not only consider representativeness in terms of reflecting party support, but also consider representativeness in terms of accurately mirroring society at large, that is, descriptive representation.

Putting Scandinavian Equality to the Test: An Experimental Evaluation of Gender Stereotyping of Political Candidates in a Sample of Norwegian Voters

The issue of the equitable representation of women in political bodies has concerned both political activists and political scientists for a number of years. Greater representation of women is predicted to have a number of effects on public policy and social interactions. Among these effects are changes in policy priorities, improved system legitimacy and a change in the political culture as old stereotypes disappear and women come to be viewed as the equals of men in the political sphere. The view has been that if women were to get into office, they could prove themselves effective. Therefore societal views on women as political leaders would change, and old stereotypes as to their limited competence would break down. The hope of many is that as women politicians become commonplace, a countrys political culture would change so that gender is no longer a relevant consideration in evaluating political leaders. This Note directly tests the assertion that increased participation by women leads to this genderneutral view of political leaders.

Age, Race, Self-Interest, and Financing Public Schools through Referenda

Using a sample of 628 white, black, and Hispanic voters in a large urban school district, we test a series of hypotheses about voting in a school bond election. We find that there is a core of similar results across racial/ethnic groups. All three groups show strong, directly measured, self-interest effects. We also find some distinct group differences. Symbolic values played a limited role for white voters, but a stronger role for minorities. In addition, for white voters we find a substantial drop in support for the bond across age cohorts, but no such drop among black and Hispanic voters.

The Growth of Women's Representation in the Canadian House of Commons and the Election of 1984: A Reappraisal

In the 1980s, Canada went from having one of the lowest levels of female representation in its national legislature to having one of the highest among countries with single-member district electoral systems. The authors examine the common assertion that this increase was largely due to the surprising Progressive Conservative landslide in the 1984 federal election. By simulating plausible alternative election results they find there would have been a substantial increase in the number of women in the parliament, regardless of how the vote split in 1984. The simulations are followed by probit analyses for 1980, 1984 and 1988 which examine what factors affected the probability a major-party candidate would be a woman and what factors affected the probability that a successful candidate would be a woman.