Taking bread off the table: race, gender, resources and political ambition in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-142
Author(s):  
Kristin Wylie
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Candidate Emergence ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
Women's Participation

Traditional gender roles, gendered political institutions and resource inequities disincentivise women’s participation in formal politics. This article analyses the Brazilian case – where women comprise 9.2 per cent of federal legislators elected since 1994 – to illustrate the centrality of resources in shaping candidate emergence. I examine how entrepreneurial elections, which incentivise intra-party competition and expensive campaigns, have sustained white men’s dominance in Brazilian political institutions and deterred white and Afro-Brazilian women’s political ambition. Using the latest data on campaign finance in Brazilian legislative elections, I explain how recent campaign finance reforms and a series of injustices provoking women’s emotive power yielded important resources catalysing the candidacies of women, especially Black women. The findings suggest that defraying campaign costs offers a potent mechanism for levelling the playing field, and remind us that women’s political ambition is shaped by their ‘relationally embedded’ risk assessment, constrained in no small part by the masculinised ethos of party politics.

A Trump Effect? Women and the 2018 Midterm Elections

The Forum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Lawless ◽  
Richard L. Fox
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Candidate Emergence ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Midterm Elections ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Negative Feelings

Abstract From the moment Donald Trump took the oath of office, women’s political engagement skyrocketed. This groundswell of activism almost immediately led to widespread reporting that Trump’s victory was inspiring a large new crop of female candidates across the country. We rely on a May 2017 national survey of “potential candidates” and the 2018 midterm election results to assess whether this “Trump Effect” materialized. Our analysis uncovers some evidence for it. Democrats – especially women – held very negative feelings toward Trump, and those feelings generated heightened political interest and activity during the 2018 election cycle. That activism, however, was not accompanied by a broad scale surge in women’s interest in running for office. In fact, the overall gender gap in political ambition today is quite similar to the gap we’ve uncovered throughout the last 20 years. Notably, though, about one quarter of the Democratic women who expressed interest in running for office first started thinking about it only after Trump was elected. That relatively small group of newly interested candidates was sufficient to result in a record number of Democratic women seeking and winning election to Congress. With no commensurate increase in Republican women’s political engagement or candidate emergence, however, prospects for gender parity in US political institutions remain bleak.

scholarly journals Incumbents without a Campaign Finance Advantage: Competition and Money in Chile's Congressional Elections

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel W. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Inverse Relationship ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
Level Playing Field ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Political Finance

Research from various countries has shown that incumbents in legislative elections raise and spend more money when they face a tougher contest. A statistical analysis of Chilean candidates’ campaign finance disclosures shows the opposite: an inverse relationship between incumbent spending and electoral competitiveness. This occurs because Chile's deputies are relatively limited in their influence over policy and pork and because the congressional electoral system makes most competitive contests relevant only to the intra-coalitional balance of power. This account implies that political finance is as much a function of political systems and the supply of contributions as it is candidates’ demand for funds, and motivates several hypotheses about campaign finance in Chile. Among others, the analysis confirms that incumbents and challengers compete on a level playing field, spending similar amounts of campaign finance. The paper also illustrates that incumbents and challengers fare equally well in Chile's “secret” donation system.

Destined to Run?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-52
Author(s):  
Jamil Scott ◽  
Nadia Brown ◽  
Lorrie Frasure ◽  
Dianne Pinderhughes
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Candidate Emergence ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Using Data

While the candidate emergence literature has provided explanations as to why women do not run or think about running for office, we are still learning about the reasons why they do. This question is of interest for the political candidacy of Black women, as this group is most represented among women of color in political office and their numbers continue to grow. Furthermore, because there is evidence that Black women’s entry into politics is distinct from other groups, it is important to explore how Black women come to participate in politics. The authors examine the extent to which Black women’s level of civic engagement influences their likelihood of considering political office compared to other groups of women. They theorize that running for office is a form of political participation and that previous political activity can act as a predictor for political ambition. The authors explore the likelihood that civic engagement matters for Black women being asked to run and considering running for office on their own. Using data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS), a unique dataset that provides a large and generalizable sample of racial and ethnic groups in the United States, the authors examine political ambition beyond the groups that have traditionally run for political office. In sum, our data indicates that political participation significantly predicts being asked to run and thinking about running for office. These results reveal the importance of thinking beyond the traditional candidacy pool and how sociopolitical factors matter for key determinants of seeking political office (being asked and having considered running).

Women's Participation in Politics: Ukrainian Case

2014 ◽  
Vol 2013 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Skovikov Alexey
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe international practices takes into account the question of women's participation in the political life of modern Ukraine. The selection of the state was due to the dynamic process of democratic transformation - the separation of powers, the formation of multi-party competition among political actors in the electoral process, the activity women in the various institutions of civil society. The position was claimed on the basis of empirical data range of academic institutions and reputable sociological centers, and also interviews with experts who said that the creation of real conditions for self-realization by women's interest in politics is only possible for long term. The process is controversial and caused by political culture, traditions and interests of the ruling class represented mainly by men.

Women’s Activism in the Modern Movement for Black Liberation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisha A. Upton ◽  
Joyce M. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Black Power Movement ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Modern Movement

This chapter examines women’s activism in the modern movement for Black liberation. It examines women’s roles across three phases of mobilization. Starting with an exploration of women’s participation in the direct action phase of the U.S. civil rights movement (1954–1966), the chapter discusses the key roles that women played in the fight for legal equality for African Americans. Next it examines women’s central role in the Black Power movement of 1966–1974. The authors argue that Black women found new roles in new struggles during this period. The chapter ends with a look at the rise of radical Black feminism between 1974 and 1980, examining the codification of intersectional politics and discussing the continuation of issues of race, privilege, and diversity in contemporary feminism.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Christian Dyogi Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
White Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Asian American Women ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Candidate Emergence ◽  
And Gender

Chapter 1 begins by presenting an overview of the vicissitudes of descriptive representation in state legislatures for women and men from the four largest racial groups in the United States, from 1996 to 2015. The chapter then previews the book’s main finding: factors related to representation and candidate emergence, such as the relationship between district populations and descriptive representatives or political ambition, are shaped by race and gender simultaneously. To account for the persistence of underrepresentation among women and minorities, Chapter 1 then advances the intersectional model of electoral opportunity. The model accounts for external and internal, multilevel pressures that constrain and facilitate the realistic candidacy opportunities for white women, white men, men of color, and women of color. The chapter closes by discussing the necessity of studying Asian American women and men, and Latinas and Latinos, in order to better understand representation in a nation shaped by immigration and immigrant communities.

An Expanded Vision

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Mona Lena Krook
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Female Journalists ◽  
Politically Active

Chapter 4 notes that the concept of violence against women in politics—as it has emerged—has largely been restricted to actions perpetrated against women in elections and/or within formal political institutions. During this same period, however, parallel campaigns have emerged to draw attention to violence committed against women human rights defenders and against female journalists. Observing that these efforts take up highly similar issues concerning violence as a barrier to women’s participation in the political field, the chapter advocates joining these various streams to forge a more comprehensive concept of violence against women in politics, underscoring continuities across challenges faced by politically active women of all types.

Strategic alliances: Red, green, or “watermelon” candidates in Mexican legislative elections

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 760-769
Author(s):  
Jae-Jae Spoon ◽  
Amalia Pulido-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Alliances ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Green Party ◽  
Developing Democracies ◽  
Institutional Revolutionary Party ◽  
Revolutionary Party

What role do small parties play in new democracies? Although some research has posited that these parties developed to promote policies that the major parties were not addressing, we argue that they are as opportunistic as their larger party competitors. To test our argument, we examine the legislative electoral alliances between the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) in single member districts from 2006 to 2015. In alliance districts, the parties distribute the districts between them: those in which the candidate is from the PRI and those in which the candidate is from the PVEM. There is then a second dynamic in these electoral alliances: Many of the PVEM candidates are former PRI politicians, whom we refer to as “watermelon” candidates, as they are green on the outside and red on the inside. We argue that the parties will select the alliance strategy that will be most electorally beneficial—running a PRI, PVEM, or watermelon candidate. We find that running a PRI or watermelon candidate increases the alliance’s probability of winning. Our findings have important implications for understanding Mexican party politics as well as the role of small parties and party competition in developing democracies.

Should campaign finance reform aim to level the playing field?

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Pevnick
Keyword(s):  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Level Playing Field ◽  
Important Goal ◽  
Finance Reform ◽  
Campaign Finance Reform ◽  
Playing Field

Many argue that an important goal of campaign finance reform should be to ensure that competing candidates have roughly equal financial resources with which to contest campaigns. Although there are very important reasons to worry about the role that money has come to play in many democracies, this article argues in three main steps that this particular position lacks compelling justification. First, while advocates of such positions often rely on an analogy with much smaller deliberative settings to defend the view that advocates of competing perspectives should be given equal resources, there are differences between such settings and campaigns that undermine the analogy’s appeal. Second, independent arguments – connected to the importance of ensuring that the wealthy do not dominate public debate and preventing corruption – may speak strongly in favor of a generous system of public funding, but fail to provide reason to ensure that advocates of competing positions have access to equal resources. Third, it is impossible to meaningfully level the playing field without objectionably restricting civil liberties. An implication of these arguments is that common criticisms of voucher-based systems of public funding, which hinge on an implicit commitment to the importance of a level playing field, fail.

The Polarization of the Palestinian Political Field

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamil Hilal
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
Current State ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
The Gaza Strip ◽  
National Reconciliation ◽  
The Way

Arguing that the polarization of the Palestinian political field did not start with Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the author analyzes the factors that have eroded the cohesiveness and vitality of the Palestinian polity, namely, the paralysis of Palestinian political institutions, territorial and social fragmentation, and egregious outside interference. In this context, and in the absence of an internal Palestinian debate about the objectives of holding elections under occupation, the author shows that the timing and circumstances of the 2006 legislative elections were bound to precipitate the current state of disarray. Finally, he considers the way forward, highlighting the potential of public pressure in promoting national reconciliation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document