Tània Verge

Mujer y partidos políticos en España: las estrategias de los partidos y su impacto institucional, 1978-2004

This article examines in depth the answer that the three main state-wide Spanish political parties (Spanish Socialist Workers? Party, Popular Party and United Left) have given to the demand for a gender balanced presence in representative offices; a demand which greatly concerns political parties as, among their operative functions, they are in charge of the recruitment of political elites and candidate selection which finally determines the configuration of political institutions. In particular, it analyzes the strategies implemented by political parties since the inauguration of democracy in 1978 and studies their effects on the presence of women holding top posts in internal party bodies and representative institutions. The increase in women?s representation has been due to exogenous factors (electoral rivalry among parties, competition for women?s vote, etc.) as well as to internal reasons such as the political ideology of the party, the creation of feminist lobbies inside the parties and the introduction of quotas.

Playing with different cards: Party politics, gender quotas and women's empowerment

Although statutory quotas have considerably expanded worldwide, the bulk of gender quotas in place are party quotas used in the selection of candidates and composition of party bodies. This article aims to examine whether reforms addressing women’s representation translate into greater power for women within political parties, thus providing new insights into how transformative gender quotas may (or may not) be in promoting gender equality in politics more generally. Specifically, we look beyond the distributive logic of gender quotas and examine instead the party institutional configuration in which patterns of distribution are realised, through the daily enactment of informal institutions. Our findings suggest that while unequal patterns of office distribution can be effectively fixed through gender quotas, this ‘simple’ solution cannot automatically subvert the main informal sources of male power in the party organisation. As change and continuity coexist, gender quota reforms are layering processes in which some elements are renegotiated while others persist.

Small and Divided Parties in Multi-Level Settings: Opportunities for Regional Government Participation, the Case of Izquierda Unida in Spain

Izquierda Unida/United Left (IU) has recently moved from its traditional opposition role to a new governing status. Despite lacking governing experience, having a non-pivotal and non-central ideological position, and displaying high degrees of factionalism, IU managed to establish itself as a governing partner for an array of very different parties. This article examines how the opportunities offered by multi-level institutional systems (such as the Spanish state) allow the leaderships of small, radical and divided parties to overcome their governing inexperience, diversify party goals, counteract factionalism and develop a hinge-party profile.

Party strategies towards civil society in new democracies The Spanish case

The aim of this article is twofold. First it sheds light on the types of relationship established by political parties with interest groups in new democracies through the identification of the strategies applied by parties towards civil society. Analysis of the Spanish case allows the mapping of three different strategies: the creation and/or sponsoring (of social organizations), penetration (infiltration of social organizations by party members or co-option of them for the party in central or in public office) and collaboration (creation of common forums for contact and action with social organizations). The article also discusses the rationales embedded in these strategies and how their use has changed over time and across parties. The second aim is to examine the environmental and party organizational factors that might explain the patterns revealed and to develop hypotheses on party strategies towards interest groups.

Post‐ministerial occupation in advanced industrial democracies: Ambition, individual resources and institutional opportunity structures

The post-office occupation of former cabinet members remains basically unexplored in both single-case and comparative studies. Is being a minister just a career tout court, or does serving in executive office facilitate movement to other positions? This article sheds new light on this question by advancing the theoretical development and empirical understanding of the various types of post-ministerial occupation. The analysis takes into account ex-ministers’ ambition, political capital resources and the institutional opportunity structures that might well affect both ambition and individual resources. Additionally, given that access to executive office is profoundly gendered, the article addresses the central question of whether post-ministerial occupations similarly present differential patterns for women and men. The empirical results of a cross-national comparison of 23 advanced industrial democracies show that, for most departing ministers, serving in executive office is indeed a stepping stone to other positions. Post-office trajectories are not only shaped by ex-ministers’ political capital resources such as seniority, party office, policy expertise and type of portfolio held while in cabinet, but also by different institutional factors that present country-specific combinations. Specifically, systemic variables shape the relevance of political capital resources and affect how ambition is constructed and towards which goals. Strong gendered post-office patterns are not found, although some intriguing gender differences are observed.

REGULATING GENDER EQUALITY IN POLITICAL OFFICE IN SOUTHERN EUROPE: THE CASES OF GREECE, PORTUGAL AND SPAIN

When democracy was restored in Southern Europe in the 1970s, Greece, Portugal and Spain elected less than 7% of women in their respective national parliaments. Despite sharing similar political, cultural and socioeconomic traits, some decades later, womens representation shows great variation across the region, even if party gender quotas were progressively adopted and legislative quotas have been recently passed in all countries. Hitherto, differences in patterns of womens representation and quota reforms in Southern Europe remain largely unexplored. Departing from a feminist-institutionalist approach this article investigates how the institutions affecting political recruitment, particularly gender quotas, have combined both across and within countries thereby producing dissimilar outcomes. I argue that the main explanatory factor accounting for cross-national differences in the institutionalisation of gender equality in political office is the role played by the main left-wing party in promoting quota reforms and in driving broader institutional change.

The Gender Regime of Political Parties: Feedback Effects between “Supply” and “Demand”

Is womens chronic minority status worldwide explained by a lack of women wishing to stand for political office or by party selectors’ disinterest in selecting women candidates? This debate continues among gender politics scholars; however, an increasing number of studies highlight the need to further investigate how the demands of party selectors might shape the supply of women candidates, especially in strong parliamentary democracies where political parties are the key gatekeepers (Kenny 2013; Murray 2010). This concern was already present in Norris and Lovenduskis (1995) original model, which called for a deeper examination of the “interaction effects” between “supply” and “demand.” In engaging with this call, I argue that the constraining effects of supply are reinforced not only by the demands of party selectors, but also by the everyday (gendered) functioning of political parties, which helps us understand the differential chances of women and men eventually becoming candidates.

Impulse and Decadence of Linkage Processes: Evidence from the Spanish Radical Left

Reacting to a profound electoral and organisational crisis, in the mid-1980s the Communist Party of Spain initiated a process of party change which envisioned empowering members in decision-making processes and establishing closer and wider relations with civil society. Party change eventually led to the creation of a new organisation, United Left. This article gives an account of the design and implementation of participatory and environmental linkages by the Spanish United Left and evaluates their specific outputs. We show that United Lefts strategies aimed at reinvigorating linkage have had very limited success, failing to stabilise the partys electoral fortunes, to reconnect with society and to expand its membership.

Factionalism in multi-level contexts When party organization becomes a device

This article provides a dynamic framework through which factionalism can be examined and the circumstances of individual parties compared in multi-level contexts. We discuss the interaction between factionalism and party structure by setting out a model of factional organization dependent on the tolerance of host parties to dissent and their degree of vertical integration, their combination yielding four possible strategies for opposition factions: centralized, inter-layered, multi-layered and decentralized. We also consider what implications there are for the party’s dominant coalition in episodes of high factionalism. These act as a catalyst for the modification of party rules that regulate dissent and vertical distribution of power. The hypotheses developed are tested on four Spanish political parties that differ on the autonomy of regional branches and factions, the competitive position in the party system and factionalism type – more policy or more patronage-oriented.

A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing or a Gift from Heaven? Left–Left Coalitions in Comparative Perspective

Communist, post-Communist and radical socialist political parties have recently been brought into the coalition equation in a number of democratic states. This article seeks to develop and apply an analytical framework suitable for understanding under what conditions this occurs. It concentrates primarily on coalition formation at the sub-state level between social democratic parties and competitors to their ideological left. The framework is applied in the German and Spanish cases. The article concludes that there do indeed appear to be optimal sets of conditions facilitating the creation of left–left coalitions.