TY - JOUR
T1 - Permissive electoral systems and descriptive representation
AU - Dhima, Kostanca
AU - Golder, Sona N.
AU - Stephenson, Laura B.
AU - Van der Straeten, Karine
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this study was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through the Making Electoral Democracy Work project, grant #412-2009-1004. Van der Straeten also acknowledges IAST funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the Investments for the Future (Investissements d’Avenir) program, grant ANR-17-EURE-0010 . We also thank Nicole McMahon and Tyler Girard of the University of Western Ontario for their excellent research assistance. The data and all computer code necessary to replicate the results in this analysis will be made available at https://kdhima.com/ upon publication. Stata 14 was the statistical package used in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Existing research about the effects of electoral systems on descriptive representation is mixed. In this paper, we test implications of theoretical arguments about the impact of electoral rules on voters’ propensity to vote for women candidates. We conducted a survey experiment during the 2017 provincial election in British Columbia, Canada, using actual candidates in both real and hypothetical electoral districts. We find that more permissive, or candidate-centered, forms of proportional representation do not improve descriptive representation of women; if anything, they diminish it. We interpret these results as being driven by the supply of candidates – voters tend to vote for incumbent, well-known candidates who happen to be predominantly men. Our findings provide a cautionary note about how electoral rules can interact with real-world experiences and conditions.
AB - Existing research about the effects of electoral systems on descriptive representation is mixed. In this paper, we test implications of theoretical arguments about the impact of electoral rules on voters’ propensity to vote for women candidates. We conducted a survey experiment during the 2017 provincial election in British Columbia, Canada, using actual candidates in both real and hypothetical electoral districts. We find that more permissive, or candidate-centered, forms of proportional representation do not improve descriptive representation of women; if anything, they diminish it. We interpret these results as being driven by the supply of candidates – voters tend to vote for incumbent, well-known candidates who happen to be predominantly men. Our findings provide a cautionary note about how electoral rules can interact with real-world experiences and conditions.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102381
DO - 10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102381
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113323925
VL - 73
JO - Electoral Studies
JF - Electoral Studies
SN - 0261-3794
M1 - 102381
ER -