Electoral System Effects on Gender Representation: The Case of Mixed Systems

Abstract

Electoral systems as endogenous re-distributive institutions (Tsebelis, 1990) help to define the rules of the game. In this manner they have an important impact among regional, class, ethnic, gender, and other sub-groups of the general population on the distribution and variation in outcome of who is nominated for, and elected to, national office. In particular, there is a well-established and growing literature on the impact of electoral systems and electoral system reform on the representation of women in national legislative bodies (Darcy, Welch, and Clarke 1994; Matland and Taylor 1997; Caul 1998; Rule 1987; Matland 1998). In general, these studies have concluded that more women are elected in proportional rather than in plurality or majority electoral systems. However, a major difficulty in interpreting these findings is created by the historical, cultural, economic, and institutional differences among cases chosen for comparison.

Do electoral rules matter? Explaining national differences in women's representation in the European Parliament

“…France, for example, employs a two-round single-member district (SMD) system to elect MPs to the lower house and PR in EP elections, which results in a higher proportion of women in the EP. This hypothesis is congruent with a large body of literature offering evidence that PR tends to produce more equitable outcomes in terms of gender representation than SMD plurality rules in national parliaments (Beckwith, 1992; Castles, 1981; Caul, 1997, 1999; Darcy et al., 1994; Duverger, 1955; Jones, 2009; Kenworthy and Malami, 1999; Krook, 2010; Lakeman, 1994; Lijphart, 1984, 1999; Matland, 1993; McAllister and Studlar, 2002; Norris, 1985, 2004; Norris and Krook, 2011; Paxton, 1997; Paxton and Hughes, 2007; Paxton and Kunovich, 2003; Reynolds, 1999; Reynolds and Reilly, 1997; Rule, 1987, 1994; Salmond, 2006; Tripp and Kang, 2008; Vengroff et al., 2000; Wangnerud, 2009). Since 1999, elections to the EP employ variations of PR formulas, while national elections are run on a variety of electoral rules and district magnitudes.…”

Portugal's Quota-Parity Law: An Analysis of its Adoption

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated a strong correlation between democracies with proportional electoral systems, in particular those with closed lists, large average district magnitudes, and centralised party-list nomination processes, as the most favourable institutional environments for electing women to parliament (Darcy et al 1994;Htun and Jones 2002;Matland 2006;Vengroff et al 2000). Moreover, these conditions also happen to be the most favourable institutional feature for the implementation of legal party quotas.…”

Gender and Politics

“…) 1994; Lovenduski and Norris (eds. ) 1993) and books and articles on specific factors effecting women's political representation, such as electoral systems (Golosov 2001;Vengroff, Creevey and Krisch 2000;Matland 1998;Welch and Studlar 1990;Rule 1987;), recruitment and selection practices in political parties ( Kunovich and Paxton 2005;Fox and Lawless 2004;Mackay 2004;Caul 2001;Norris 1997a; Norris and Lovenduski 1995), the use of quota legislation ( Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2005;Dahlerup 2006;Freedman 2004;Childs 2002;Meier 2000;Dahlerup 1998), constitutional changes (Donaghy 2004;Dobrowolsky and Hart 2003;Chaney and Fevre 2002; Russell, Mackay and MacAllister 2002; as well as books and articles that looked at the consequences of women's presence in parliaments, for exam-2…”