Electoral Systems and Potential Discriminations

Question 1

Women’s Suffrage

Answer 1

started in the late 18th century and picked up in late 19th - mid 20th century

the right of women to vote in elections

Question 2

Which country was the first to allow women to vote?

Answer 2

1893 New Zealand was the the 1st self-governing country in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections

but women could not run for election to the parliament until 1919

Question 3

Which country was the last to allow women to vote?

Answer 3

1971 - Switzerland granted universal women’s sufferage at the federal level

Lichtenstein in 1984

Question 4

Women in National Parliaments

Answer 4

2022 - Global average of female MPs = 26.4% (upper+lower chambers)

this is up from 11% in 1995

• only 6 countries 50%+ women in parliament (rwansa, cuba, nicaragua, mexico, NZ, and UAE)
• 23 countries have 40%+ women in parliament
• gender pairity is not expected until 2063
• even less women in local gov

Question 5

Electoral reform’s contribution to women’s selection and election as candidates

Answer 5

In recent times many countries have reformed electoral laws to require that more women be selected and/or elected as candidates

Question 6

Does majority/plurality or PR have more female candidates?

Answer 6

PR has more women than SMD systems (Majority/Plurality) or preferential voting

Duverger (1955), Lakeman and Lambert (1955), Farrell (2001)

• In most mixed systems women legislators come largely from the proportional part of the ballot than the single-member side
• advantages of closed list PR to increase the number of female MPs or guarantee a min proportion of seats to ethnic minorities
• MMDs are better than SMDs bc lists are the focus and not individual candidates
• Under PR it is easier fro women to run for and win office bc they are not competing as newcomers agaisnt incumbents
• in SMD it is a 0 sum game = for a woman to be elected it means that a man wasnt elected

Question 7

What is the advantage of closed list PR?

Answer 7

• lists are the focus of voting, not individual candidates
• in PR it is easier for women to run and win bc they don’t have to defeat the incumbents as the newcomer
• differences in M (district magnitude) across PR and SSD systems” in SMD if a male is elected a woman is exlude (0 SUM GAME)
• Ballot structure (ballots are closed, open, or flexible)

Question 8

What role does district magnitude play in representation in parliament?

Answer 8

In SMD it is a Zero sum game
For a woman to be elected it means that a man is not elected.

Question 9

What are the main types of gender quotas?

Answer 9

• reserved seats
• party quota
• legislative quota

started in the 1990s. present in 130 countries

Question 10

Candidate Emergence from the Pool of Prospective Candidates

Answer 10

Initial decision to run for office: women who share the same personal characterisitics and professional credentials as men express significantly lower levels of political ambitions to hold elective office

1. women are far less likely than men to be encourgaed to run for office
2. women are significantly less likely than men to view themselves as qualified to run

Question 11

Electoral system choice in ethnically divided socieites

Answer 11

“In ethnically divided societies, majority rule is not a solution; it is a problem, because it permits domination, apparently in perpetuity” (Horowitz, 1993)

• Sometimes it is hard to identify which groups should be represented
• Possible issue of discrimination among minorities
• Great variation not just in the level but also the geographic distribution of ethnic diversity can result in the same electoral system having quite different impacts

Question 12

Reserved Seats

Answer 12

seats reserved in parliament for minorities

affermative gerrymandering is a different approach here

Question 13

Ethnic/Regional Party Bans

Answer 13

to stop ethnic tensions from rising

Question 14

Electoral Discrimination Thesis

Answer 14

Voters may tend to discriminate agaisnt minority candidates

Underrepresntation is due to the # of immigrant origin candidates willing to run for political office (and able to get on electoral lists) or rather an unwillingness on the part of the electorate to vote fro them?

Question 15

PR and Minority Representation

Answer 15

PR can help ensure that representation of any group, but accessibility is critical (high min vote thresholds can exclude groups).

BUT PR might also encourage ethnic division