A person holding a globe Gender quota politics Fall 2023 Quota? •How do you understand quota? What does it mean? •Why is this controversial? •What about quota and democracy? •What is the dominant discourse in your country? •Quota: yay or nay? • Quotas as a ‘fast track’ to equal representation for women (Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2005) •Incremental vs. Fast-Track route •Nordic countries: 70 years to get to 30% •Costa Rica from 19 to 35% in one election •Incremental: liberal discourse, gradual changes in social norms, education, party recruitment, get rid of barriers, quotas seen as discriminatory •Fast track: formal and informal discrimination, glass. Ceilings, active measures, quota compensation of structural barriers •What can be the downside of quota? •Gradual change not working •Right quota provision and right context •Goal = increase in the numbers •Not more democratic or transparent process •Quota = legitimacy to alod nomination processes (Lat Am) •Parties don‘t comply (PRI in 2003 – primaries instead of quota) •How to implement qouta in decentralized systems (USA?) The Pros and Cons of Gender Quota Laws Lisa Baldez 2006 Democracy and Adoption of Quota Worldwide. Zetterberg, Bjarnegård, Hughes, and Paxton 2022 •The levels of democray matter •Adoption more likely by countries in the middle •Limited political rights = reserved seats (not threatening to elites) •More contested elections = canidate quota • Obsah obrázku mapa, Svět, Země, atlas Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Quota worldwide Quota worldwide •Spread after 2000 •Over half of the countries apply some •Quota database: IDEA •1st wave: 1970s and 1980s Scandinavia (and Communist regimes) •2nd wave: after 1991 (Argentina) in Latin America, Beijing Action Plan 1995 •3rd wave: current reforms of quota measures (to make them effective) • Obsah obrázku snímek obrazovky Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Defining quota •Affirmative action measure •No. or % of women nominated or elected •Fast-track measure •For women or gender neutral • Quota arguments (Dahlerup 2017) TYPES OF QUOTA •Reserved seats •Legislative quota (electoral law or constitution) •Party quota • •Sometimes a combination (i.e., Rwanda: 2 reserved. Seats per province + 30% quota for candidates on the ballot) • Quota around the world •Reserved seats: Asia, Middle East, North Africa •Legislative quota: Latin America, Europe, Africa •Party quota: Europe, South Africa • •EU countries often go from voluntary party quota to legislative quota: France, Belgium, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Croatia, Poland Does quota work? Under what conditions? •Reserved seats (with higher thresholds) •Placement mandate (double quota),but ceiling effects •Penalties for non-compliance (must be strong) •Different effects in different contexts • Why is quota adopted? •Social movement •International organizations, international reputation •Spillover effect •Party dynamics and rational party strategies • Obsah obrázku hlediště, interiér, radnice, velké Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Intra and inter-party competition •Why parties adopt quota laws and not just party quota? •Political incentives •National party leaders adopt quota to get advantage over local actors •Parties adopt quota laws when losing votes to progressive challengers •Examples: •Belgium (vs. Austria) •Portugal (vs. Italy) •Weeks 2018 • Inclusion calculation •Rational motives •When party/government loses legitimacy •Women new element (not stereotypical politicians) • •Quota draw attention •Signal commitment •Can protect power of male elites •Qouta ineffective and temporary Effects: legislators‘ quality? •France quota law = elected women as active and efficient lawmakers as men (no. of bills co-signed, contributions to plenary session, committee sessions, no. of repots written)(Murray 2010) •No difference in quality between women in reserved seats and contested seats in Uganda (O´Brien 2012) •In Italy, educational attainment of both female and male MPs increased after quota (Baltrunaite et al. 2014) • Legislator quality: Italy (Weeks and baldez 2015) •Quota women in Italy -> improvement of overall levels of qualification •Quota women no less qualified and competent than men, indicators: •Characteristics: Previous political experience, occupation, education •House performance: No. Of bills introduced, absenteeism, re-election •Compare also quota women and non-quota women from 1994 one-time quota election (mixed electoral system, applied quota only to PR tier of election) • •Discrimination by leaders – not low qualifications – that explain lower numbers of nominated women in 1996 • • Obsah obrázku text, snímek obrazovky, Písmo, číslo Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku text, snímek obrazovky, Písmo, číslo Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Case study: Swedish social democratic party •1994: 50:50 gender quota (zipper) •Besley et al. 2017: analysis of candidate competence prior and after the quota •Candidate earnings prior to politics (conditional on age, education, occupation) •Competence of candidates INCREASED after quota adoption •Mediocre men resigned, quality of party leaders increased, they picked more competent candidates •Rainbow Murray was probably right • > Obsah obrázku text, diagram, řada/pruh, Vykreslený graf Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Obsah obrázku text, Písmo, Tisk, účtenka Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Effects: Women‘s leadership •Does quota lead to stigmatization of „quota women“? •Or does quota promote female leadership? •O‘Brien and Rickne 2016 Resistance to quota (Krook 2016)