CPO 3930 Exam 2 Reading Reynolds Reilly and Ellis Descriptive representation the extent to which the rules ensure the legislation is a reflection of society with respect to gender race class ethnicity or similar vested interests Political Ideological Representation the extent to which ideological divisions are represented in a legislature o via parties individuals or both Party Partisan Representation regardless of party ideology if a party enjoys broad support but wins no seats then the legislature is by definition not representative Geographic Representation each region is defined in such a way that it has representatives that are accountable to that area Legislative Quota Reserved Seats Party Quotas a quota of a type of person that must be in the legislature o Example gender quotas set aside a fixed percentage of legislative seats for members of a certain group o Example A certain of seats for native people require a minimum threshold of candidates fielded by political parties have certain characteristics Tends to diffuse across parties in a given country Most common in Europe Lecture Readings Gender Quotas Arguments FOR gender quotas right to equal representation Compensatory for exclusionary barriers does not deny voters enhances democratization and models Arguments AGAINST gender quotas candidates selected basis of gender rather than qualifications Violates the principal of equal opportunity Undemocratic women don t want to be elected on basis of gender quotas violate liberal democracy creates conflicts within parties American public opinion regarding need for better descriptive representation 21st century attitudes appear to be changing o increasingly see arguments in favor of descriptive representation on the basis of fairness equality and social justice o institutional solutions to correct patterns of historical exclusion for women and minorities Electable Positions a factor determining if quotas are effective Effectiveness of gender quotas and electoral rules the representation of women in politics has increased in recent years coinciding with widespread adoption of quotas cultural and attitude changes has lead to both Enforcement of gender quotas Electoral institutions adopted to ensure women or minorities are involved in public decision making o For women the threshold is typically 30 40 Geographical distribution of gender quotas by type More than 65 countries provide for descriptive representation on the basis of gender or ethnicity via quotas or reserved seats o Peru Namibia Bolivia 30 of the list o Argentina and Coast Arica 40 in electable positions The policy impact of gender quotas Impact highly dependent on enforcement and list placement specifications o Also dependent on closed list vs open list Reserved seats typically in majoritarian systems o Constitutionally written Gender ethnicity and party cleavages Gender cuts across party cleavages o Party Cleavage separates the voters into advocates and adversaries on a certain issue or voting for a certain party Ethnicity and race coincide with party cleavages race and ethnicity are descriptive identities Origins of gender quotas Adopted across the country in 1994 o During a Convention on women s rights o early implementers were Scandinavian countries and Argentina and began to diffuse regionally 1995 Peru adopted gender quotas Divergent patters of representation between women and minority and implied Institutional solutions Quotas require a minimum threshold of candidates fielded by political parties have certain characteristics Reserved Seats Positive Correlation between proposed remedy and solution Mixed system of gender quotas where a combination of party gender quotas and national minority quotas more likely that majority women will benefit more Tandem system of gender quotas minority women are more likely to benefit when national gender policies are adopted alongside minority quotas the inclusion of minority women in the national legislature can help to fulfill both gender and minority quotas and thus displace fewer majority men Reading Ljphart chapter on party systems Political parties a stable organization through which politicians coordinate their political activity across electoral districts in parliamentary assemblies and in executive or governmental committees o primary vehicle through which interests are represented Party systems refers to distribution of voter s support across parties in representative democracies o Two Party System o Dominant Party System Two parties of comparable size compete for electoral support Use their control of the state to reward their supporters this building a more secure support base but also rendering themselves vulnerable to corruption and decline o Multiparty system Several parties achieve representation in parliament Proportional representation Sociological perspective of party system organization Emphasized the heterogeneity of interests and social groups to explain the emergence of party systems in Western Europe o Western European party systems were jointly determined by National Revolutions Industrial Revolutions defined economic class cleavage o Parties emerged as vehicles by which salient interests are represented o Limitations Salient interests are not inherent but constructed Does not explain why groups holding many interests would organize on the basis of one over the other Institutional perspective of party system organization Consider how electoral rules influences party formation Probe the impact of thresholds presidentialism district magnitude and election sequencing on the number of parties in a system o Limitations Conservative Unable to explain party type or orientation aka Liberall vs Does not make clear the origins of institutional rules nor predictions as to how parties might seek to change them Centrifugal tendency of multiparty system Duverget s system says SMD you usually get two parties which cluster around the median voter When we move to multiparty systems policy moves away from the median voter Effective number of legislative parties these are related to the number and types of issue dimensions that divide the parties the average of the effective number of parties for the 36 countries is 3 16 o they range from Papua New Guinea at 5 98 to Botswana at 1 35 Six issue dimensions of party competitions main characteristics and where they were founded Not sure why the study guide she gave us says 6 there are 7 listed in the reading 1 Socioeconomic a