Should Women Push for Fewer Women Candidates? Political Studies Association annual conference

Frances Millard, Gábor Tóka, Marina Popescu

Research output: Contribution to conference typesPaper

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Previous cross-national research on electoral-system effects on women’s legislative representation suggests that candidate-centered systems–including list PR preference systems–are disadvantageous for women candidates precisely because they allow citizens to have some direct say in the election of individual members of parliament. We develop a dynamic theoretical model of agent-mediated electoral-system effects on women’s representation that suggests potentially positive effects of preference voting systems, except where women are particularly active in politics. In the latter contexts our model predicts neutral or even negative effects of preference voting on the standing of women candidates. We test the theory’s propositions with a new dataset covering over 80,000 candidates in Central Europe, where our theory predicts different effects than previous scholarship. We conclude with an assessment of the potential benefits of PR preference systems and how they can assist the work of quotas.
Original languageEnglish
Pages1-20
Number of pages20
StatePublished - 2011
EventAmerican Political Science Association Annual Meeting - Seatlle, United States
Duration: 11 Mar 201111 Mar 2011

Conference

ConferenceAmerican Political Science Association Annual Meeting
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySeatlle
Period11/03/1111/03/11

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