Gender quotas and placement mandates in open and closed lists: Similar effects, different mechanisms

Corrêa, Diego Sanches; Chaves, Vanilda Souza

doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102157

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…It is unclear, however, if party elites similarly marginalize women. More broadly, our findings complement work on placement mandates (Corrêa and Chaves, 2020; Jankowski and Marcinkiewicz, 2019; Schmidt, 2009). In countries with open-list systems, where political parties rank candidates but voters can disturb the list, receiving a higher rank increases the likelihood of electoral success (Mustillo and Polga-Hecimovich, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…In countries with open-list systems, where political parties rank candidates but voters can disturb the list, receiving a higher rank increases the likelihood of electoral success (Mustillo and Polga-Hecimovich, 2020). Since party elites regularly rank women lower than men, it reduces their likelihood of winning office (Corrêa and Chaves, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections

Janusz¹,

Barreiro²,

Cintron

2021

Party Politics

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Political parties shape electoral outcomes by determining who stands for election and what campaign resources they have at their disposal. The introduction of gender quotas have led party leaders to nominate more women candidates, however, those women disproportionately lose. We contend that one of the reasons that women routinely lose is because party elites withhold the campaign resources necessary to mount an effective campaign. In this paper, we test this resource gatekeeping argument using data on the provision of campaign resources in Brazil. We analyze the distribution of three different types of party resources: candidate identification numbers, financial support, and television airtime. Our findings show that party elites provide female candidates less advantageous candidate identification numbers, less financial support, and less media access than they provide male candidates. Importantly, we do not find that gender gaps in campaign contributions are attributable to differences in candidate quality. This finding suggests that even when women are recruited to run for office, party elites may still undermine their electoral prospects.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections

Janusz¹,

Barreiro²,

Cintron

2021

Party Politics

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“…Various studies demonstrate very strong ballot position effects under open-list PR, meaning that most candidates are elected based on the order in which they appear on the ballot as many voters simply select the first or a highly ranked candidate on the list (e.g., Däubler and Rudolph, 2020). Corrêa and Chaves (2020) demonstrate that due to these effects, placement mandates for women are just as effective under open-list PR as under closed-list PR. and strategies of the selectorate under PR.…”

Section: Candidate Selection and Proportional Representationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Selecting and Ranking Female Candidates Under PR: Evidence from a Two-Stage Conjoint Experiment with Party Elites

Jankowski¹,

Rehmert²

2022

Preprint

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Does gender affect candidate selection and list placement under proportional representation (PR)? Existing research argues that PR systems have a positive effect on women's representation due to a more inclusive candidate selection process. However, analyzing the actual process of candidate selection under PR before observing the final party-list is challenging and little is known about the preferences and strategies of party elites when selecting and ranking candidates. To address this problem, we conduct a novel two-stage conjoint experiment with party elites in Austria. The experiment allows us to analyze gendered patterns of candidate selection and list composition under PR. Our findings indicate that women have an advantage in the candidate selection process. However, a closer inspection reveals subtle, yet important, differences in gender selection preferences between male and female party elites. These findings have important implications for understanding patterns of female underrepresentation in PR systems.

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“…Such a spectrum of choice is inexistent under the most widely used alternative rule, namely closed‐list PR. Once the latter is applied, a gender quota, as long as it is accompanied by a requirement that female candidates are represented among those featuring in high list positions (placement mandates), brings an inevitable, purely ‘mechanical’ increase in the proportion of women holding elected office (e.g., Corrêa & Chaves 2020). Under PR with preferential voting, ‘cultivating a personal vote’ (Carey & Shugart 1995) is crucial.…”

Section: Contentious Effects Of Legislated Candidate Quotas In Preferential Voting Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, being ranked high does not automatically guarantee winning elected office, and being ranked low does not always lead to an electoral loss. In fact, there are good reasons to argue that the typically high correlations between candidates’ list rankings and the numbers of preferential votes are largely spurious; some of the studies focusing on random or quasi‐random candidate order indicate that in high‐salience, high‐information elections to national parliaments, the impact of list position on a candidate's electoral success is weak (Ortega Villodres 2003; Lutz 2010, but see Corrêa & Chaves 2020 for an inventive non‐experimental comparison suggesting a somewhat stronger effect) 1 . This makes legislated quota effects sensitive to numerous contextual factors, far beyond the mere ‘mechanics’ of quota regulations.…”

Section: Contentious Effects Of Legislated Candidate Quotas In Preferential Voting Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legislated candidate quotas and women's descriptive representation in preferential voting systems

Górecki

Pierzgalski

2021

European J Political Res

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Recent decades have seen a worldwide diffusion of electoral gender quotas, an institution designed to enhance women's political representation. This has sparked scholars' interest in the actual effects of quotas, including their impact on female descriptive (numeric) representation in national legislatures. As with many other issues within the domain of comparative politics, however, establishing causality with respect to the effect of quota laws is intrinsically difficult. In this article, we attempt to overcome these difficulties. We apply the generalised synthetic control method to study the impact of legislated candidate quotas on the descriptive parliamentary representation of women in three European countries: Belgium, Greece and Poland. As these states elect their national parliaments by means of variants of a proportional representation system with preferential voting for candidates, we compare their levels of female descriptive representation to a set of corresponding figures observed for a 'synthetic control' unit, comprising 16 European countries that implement fundamentally similar electoral systems but do not have legislated candidate quotas in place. The quota effects that we obtain vary substantially among the three cases analysed. The apparent effect for Belgium is strong, while much weaker effects are observed for the two other states. Relying on the extant literature, we qualitatively interpret these results, putting forward a number of conjectures as to how contextual factors can contribute to the strength and persistence of quota effects. We conclude that the impact of legislated candidate quotas is essentially limited, albeit it may be magnified under favourable contextual conditions, such as those which occurred in Belgium.

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Gender quotas and placement mandates in open and closed lists: Similar effects, different mechanisms

Cited by 7 publications

References 26 publications

Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections

Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections

Selecting and Ranking Female Candidates Under PR: Evidence from a Two-Stage Conjoint Experiment with Party Elites

Legislated candidate quotas and women's descriptive representation in preferential voting systems

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