Resolving the Democracy Paradox

Abstract

Increasing levels of democratic freedoms should, in theory, improve women's access to political positions. Yet studies demonstrate that democracy does little to improve women's legislative representation. To resolve this paradox, we investigate how variations in the democratization process-including pre-transition legacies, historical experiences with elections, the global context of transition, and post-transition democratic freedoms and quotas-affect women's representation in developing nations. We find that democratization's effect is curvilinear. Women in non-democratic regimes often have high levels of legislative representation but little real political power. When democratization occurs, women's representation initially drops, but with increasing democratic freedoms and additional elections, it increases again. The historical context of transition further moderates these effects. Prior to 1995, women's representation increased most rapidly in countries transitioning from civil strife-but only when accompanied by gender quotas. After 1995 and the Beijing Conference on Women, the effectiveness of quotas becomes more universal, with the exception of postcommunist countries. In these nations, quotas continue to do little to improve women's representation. Our results, based on pooled time series analysis from 1975 to 2009, demonstrate that it is not democracy-as measured by a nation's level of democratic freedoms at a particular moment in time-but rather the democratization process that matters for women's legislative representation.

Multilevel governance and women's legislative representation

“…Two main data sources were used for calculating this variable: the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development database on regional statistics and European regional data provided by Cambridge Econometrics. Higher socioeconomic development of the country, or of the region in our case, facilitates gender equality in politics through different channels such as urbanization, better child-care infrastructure, better education opportunities, and so on (Fallon et al 2012;Schwindt-Bayer 2005;Thames & Williams 2013). Therefore, we expect regions with higher GDP per capita to have more women elected to their regional legislatures (DV 1), and the national-regional gap between the percentages of female MPs (DV 2) to decrease.…”

“…In 1990, the United Nation Economic and Social Council set a goal of reaching 30 per cent women's legislative representation by 1995 (Dahlerup 2006). The adoption of the Beijing 1995 Declaration also contributed to further improvement in women's political representation (Fallon et al 2012). Since the 1990s, many countries have started to adopt gender quotas to foster women's political representation (Dahlerup 2006).…”

Quotas and affirmative action: Understanding group‐based outcomes and attitudes

“…Nevertheless, voluntary targets can be effective under certain circumstances. Studies from politics suggest that voluntary targets are generally most effective when the party who sets them is liberal rather than conservative, when the area is urban rather than rural, when the area is predominantly non-Catholic, and when the country in question is not post-communist (Bonomi et al, 2013;Davidson-Schmich, 2006;Fallon, Swiss, & Viterna, 2012). In other words, where people are more likely to be supportive of affirmative action in general, voluntary targets work better.…”

Women’s Transnational Activism, Norm Cascades, and Quota Adoption in the Developing World

“…The findings suggest that multiple forces working together contribute to quota adoption, including, but not limited to, benefits gained by political elites or parties choosing to adopt quotas (Caul 1999;Htun 2004;Krook 2009;Krook and O'Brien 2010;Meier 2004), the success of transnational and local women's activism (Htun and Jones 2002;Krook 2009;Piatti-Crocker 2011), the diffusion of quotas within regions (Htun and Jones 2002;Krook 2006;Piatti-Crocker 2011;Towns 2010), and global pressures to adhere to world polity or regional expectations, in some cases to ensure continued access to donor funding (Anderson and Swiss 2014;Bush 2011;Krook 2009;Thames and Williams 2013;Towns 2012). Quota adoption is particularly salient among postconflict countries attempting to create and rebuild their political structures (Anderson and Swiss 2014;Fallon, Swiss, and Viterna 2012;Bush 2011;Hughes 2009;Hughes and Tripp 2015).…”

“…We then turn our attention to Beijing 95. Although many scholars acknowledge the role of Beijing 95 in contributing to quota adoption globally, this is often attributed to women's activism within nation-states, as well as the general pattern of increased quota adoption after 1995 (Fallon, Swiss, and Viterna 2012;Htun and Jones 2002;Piatti-Crocker 2011;Sacchet 2008;Towns 2012). To our knowledge, no quantitative cross-national study has examined whether there is a direct link between Beijing 95 and the diffusion of quota adoption globally.…”