Thematic Review: Political Institutions and Gender Equality - Gender Quotas in South America's Big Three. By Adriana Piatti-Crocker, Gregory D. Schmidt, and Clara Araújo. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. 205 pp. $90.00 (hardcover), $85.50 (eBook). - Women, Politics, and Democracy in Latin America. Edited by Tomáš Došek, Flavia Freidenberg, Mariana Caminotti, and Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 243 pp. $129.00 (hardcover), $99.00 (eBook). - Demanding Justice and Security: Indigenous Women and Legal Pluralities in Latin America. Edited by Rachel Sieder. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017. 299 pp. $95.00 (hardcover), $34.95 (paperback). - Gender and the Politics of Gradual Change: Social Policy Reform and Innovation in Chile. By Silke Staab. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 254 pp. $129.00 (hardcover), $99.00 (eBook).

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liesl Haas
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Rutgers University ◽  
Social Policy Reform ◽  
Thematic Review ◽  
And Gender

Party organization and gender in European elections

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 675-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea S Aldrich
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Candidate Selection ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Selection Procedures ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Party Strategy ◽  
Promote Gender Equality ◽  
Level I ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Elected Office

Political parties often monopolize the flow of politicians into elected office making it important to understand when, and under what conditions, parties are more or less likely to promote gender equality in representation. This article argues that party choices to nominate women in elections are conditional on the centralization of candidate selection within the party. Gender quotas and characteristics of the electoral environment have differential effects on candidate lists across party types. Leveraging data at the party level, I test when it is electorally feasible and organizationally possible for parties to nominate women for office. I find that candidate selection procedures condition the effects of party strategy and characteristics of the electoral environment on the percentage of women on electoral lists. The results provide insight into how strategic party choices, attenuated by electoral considerations and organization, impact the diversity of representation in political institutions.

Political Recruitment and Candidate Selection in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Siavelis ◽  
Scott Morgenstern
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Candidate Selection ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Inclusive Processes ◽  
Recruitment And Selection

Candidate recruitment and selection is a complex and opaque process that drives political outcomes and processes. Further, the process of candidate selection is notoriously difficult to study because of its informal nature, the multiplicity of actors involved, and because politicians may prefer to obfuscate their motives when asked about their decisions. Still, the literature has made advances in understanding recruitment and selection (R&S) and this article explores this crucial and understudied topic with respect to Latin America. Much literature has considered the importance of political institutions to candidate selection, but these explanations alone are insufficient. Analyses of political institutions have significantly advanced in the region, but in isolation, their explanatory power can fall short, as evident in examples where similar institutional frameworks yield different outcomes . This suggests the need to include informal processes when analyzing candidate recruitment and selection procedures. Then, armed with a more complete understanding of the processes, we can better assess the impacts of candidate choice on political outcomes. There is extensive work on recruitment and candidate selection in Latin America that focuses on executives, legislators, and gender. Each of these themes provides multiple examples of how outcomes are determined through a combination of formal institutions and informal practices. . The region’s politics have been trending towards more formal, open, and inclusive processes. This is largely a result of the belief that there is a crisis of representation for which parties are to blame. Reformists have thus championed more inclusive selection processes as an antidote to the problem of low-quality representation. By themselves, however, these reforms are insufficient to enhance the quality of democracy and they can have high associated costs for the democratic system. Therefore, the multiple consequences of the R&S process—intended and hidden—should raise caution for scholars and reformers.

Self-Determination and Violence against Indigenous Women

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-216
Author(s):  
Rauna Kuokkanen
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Gendered Violence ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Feminist Discourse ◽  
And Gender

Indigenous feminist discourse links the realities of multilayered violence faced by Indigenous women to questions of self-determination, self-government, and the survival of Indigenous communities. This chapter considers how Indigenous political institutions and leadership address gendered violence. Nearly all interviewees agreed that violence against women is a self-determination issue, but pointed out that existing self-government institutions do not address the problem as such (if at all). Another problem, also mentioned by some interviewees, is the limited resources. There are, however, increasing attempts to address violence against Indigenous women by Indigenous political institutions, including self-government bodies, although there is considerable variance between the three regions examined here. Building on existing considerations of gendered violence and gender justice in Indigenous contexts and using interview data, the author advances a theory of Indigenous self-determination that affirms Indigenous women’s rights and gender justice.

Gender and Representation in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
And Gender

In the past thirty years, women’s representation and gender equality has developed unevenly in Latin America. Some countries have experienced large increases in gender equality in political offices, whereas others have not, and even within countries, some political arenas have become more gender equal whereas others continue to exude intense gender inequality. These patterns are inconsistent with explanations of social and cultural improvements in gender equality leading to improved gender equality in political office. Gender and Representation in Latin America argues instead that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing Latin American countries and that these challenges matter for the number of women and men elected to office, what they do once there, how much power they gain access to, and how their presence and actions influence democracy and society more broadly. The book draws upon the expertise of top scholars of women, gender, and political institutions in Latin America to analyze the institutional and contextual causes and consequences of women’s representation in Latin America. It does this in part I with chapters that analyze gender and political representation regionwide in each of five different “arenas of representation”—the presidency, cabinets, national legislatures, political parties, and subnational governments. In part II, it provides chapters that analyze gender and representation in each of seven different countries—Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. The authors bring novel insights and impressive new data to their analyses, helping to make this one of the most comprehensive books on gender and political representation in Latin America today.

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