Engendering the Right to Participate in Decision-making: Electoral Quotas and Women’s Leadership in Latin America

Gender parity thwarted? The effect of electoral reform on Senate and European Parliamentary elections in France, 1999–2011

“…A lack of will among political party elites to apply quota provisions can be crucial. In some cases, elites simply do not comply with the quota (Appleton and Mazur, 1993;Htun and Jones, 2002); in others, they expend a great deal of time circumventing the spirit of the law, often by creating new political institutions to which the quota does not apply or by expanding the restrictions on the application of the law (Jimenez Polanco, 2001).…”

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

“…As Krook (2009: 9-10) reminds us, various case studies highlight the importance of contagion -as party elites often adopt quotas when one of their rivals adopts them (Caul 2001;Meier 2004). Similarly, case studies from Brazil (Htun and Jones 2002) and France (Bird 2003) show that elites may also sometimes use quotas as an empty gesture, 'as a way to demonstrate a degree of commitment to women without actually intending to alter existing patterns of inequality' (Krook 2009: 10). Alternatively, elites may sometimes use quotas 'as a convenient means to achieve other ends, like maintaining control over rivals within or outside the party' (Krook 2009: 10;Panday 2008).…”

“…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.…”

Removing Quotas, Maintaining Representation: Overcoming Gender Inequalities in Political Party Recruitment

“…As a consequence, selection procedures might become more rule-bound and the criteria for selection more transparent. For instance, the Bolivian quota law specifies that among a pool of three list candidates, candidates of both sexes have to be represented (Htun and Jones, 2002). An introduction of such a quota thus implies a significant reshuffle of the candidate lists.…”