Affirmative action measures and electoral candidates’ positioning in Zambia

ABSTRACTWhile the increase of women in elected office has received much scholarly attention, less attention has been paid to the dynamics of resisting gender quotas in countries that fail to adopt such measures despite regional and international pressure. We develop a context-sensitive typology of affirmative action measures that includes gender quotas and funding incentives and explore determinants of electoral candidates’ positioning in the context of Zambia. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach and unique data, we examine how candidates of different gender, party affiliation, and level of electoral success position themselves when asked to choose between different options. Intriguingly, electoral success and party allegiance – whether a candidate is affiliated with a current or former government party – are more important than gender. This finding is relevant for the debate on feminist democratic representation by showing that candidates are likely to have their more radical views muted when getting into position.

Inexperienced or anti-establishment? Voter preferences for outsider congressional candidates

Do US voters prefer inexperienced candidates? Candidates who have never held elected office before have had greater success in recent presidential and congressional elections. However, it could be that voters prefer the type of anti-establishment rhetoric that such candidates use more than the lack of experience itself. We conduct a 2x2 factorial experiment that manipulates a fictitious congressional candidate’s experience and rhetoric toward the political system. Results from a nationally representative Qualtrics sample and two follow-up studies from Mechanical Turk show that respondents evaluate the candidate more positively when he uses anti-establishment rhetoric instead of pro-establishment rhetoric. Though the findings are mixed, we find weak and inconsistent evidence that respondent prefer inexperienced candidates to experienced ones. The results suggest that outsider candidates receive an electoral boost by using anti-establishment messaging, but that candidates’ political résumés matter less to potential voters.

Are Immigrant-Origin Candidates Penalized Due to Ingroup Favoritism or Outgroup Hostility?

An influential explanation for the persistent political underrepresentation of minorities in elected office is that minority candidates are discriminated against by voters of the dominant ethnic group. We argue, however, for the need to distinguish between two forms of discrimination: ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility. We measure the impact of each by using an extensive data set drawn from Swiss elections, where voters can cast both positive and negative preference votes for candidates. Our results show that immigrant-origin candidates with non-Swiss names incur an electoral disadvantage because they receive more negative preference votes than candidates with typically Swiss names. But we also find that minority candidates face a second disadvantage: voters discriminate in favor of majority candidates by allocating them more positive preference votes. These two forms of electoral discrimination are critically related to a candidate’s party, whereas the impact of the specific outgroup to which a minority candidate belongs is less pronounced than expected.

Threats to Women/Women as Threats: Male Supremacy and the Anti-Statist Right

Throughout the Trump administration, media coverage of extremist factions of the American right grew considerably, as did the actual membership and numbers of those factions. Included among these factions, and operating on a spectrum that ranges from the center-to-fringe right, are white supremacist, Christian nationalist, and militia/patriot/sovereign citizen (broadly termed constitutionalist) movements. While the American right is heterogeneous, most of these groups are composed of white men, and male supremacism is often a common ideological denominator. Based on historical trends, recent activity, and ongoing movement mobilizations, we should anticipate increased recruitment and activism on the part of anti-statist right-wing groups during the Biden administration. While much has been written about the threat of terroristic violence these groups pose and their varying levels of engagement with white supremacist beliefs, examinations of gender have largely focused on masculinity. This note takes up the relationship between anti-statist right-wing movements and women by sketching three key areas that warrant further examination: (1) how collective interpretations of the law leave women vulnerable by refusing the legitimacy of federal legislation; (2) the threat of militia violence against women, particularly those who hold elected office; (3) how racial and gender exclusions preclude women from having their claims to membership in anti-statist right-wing movements be fully recognized. As we take stock of the growing threat posed by these movements, it is incumbent on us to critically examine the threats to women’s rights posed by the anti-statist right.

Women Had to Wait

The process of enfranchisement for women would prove still more protracted than for men. Historians highlight the fact that the female vote in France was obtained as late as 1944, almost a century after all males were enfranchised, but this surprising delay can be partly explained by the precocious arrival of universal manhood suffrage in 1848, often simply referred to as ‘universal suffrage’ by contemporaries. Almost everywhere, there was an interval between the award of votes to men and women, usually shorter where full male suffrage arrived later. This ‘gender gap’, which has been the subject of much discussion of late, was thus exaggerated in France, but women themselves were more active and inventive in demanding the franchise than is often supposed. They were standing for election and holding local office before their right to vote was finally recognized, despite the frustration of their demands, which stemmed from a gendered ideology of citizenship and the particular resistance of male politicians in parliament. In the period after the Second World War their apprenticeship in voting was rapidly accomplished and, of late, French women have achieved a high degree of parity in elected office.

Conclusion

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, electoral turnout has been in general decline, not least in France, where the process of electoral acculturation has been called into question by plummeting levels of participation in legislative and municipal elections. Presidential polls are still attracting huge numbers, but in 2017 over four million voters spoiled their papers in the second round. These disturbing trends require some explanation, and they have been ascribed to disillusionment with the democratic process and a growing belief that casting a ballot achieves rather little. However, while the habit of voting is being lost, this apparent crisis of citizenship must be set in perspective, because this study has demonstrated that high turnout was not automatically generated by a mass franchise in the past. Moreover, recent research has revealed that those who never vote, or fail to register to do so, have remained in a small minority. Instead, increasing numbers are voting intermittently, choosing to exercise their right not to vote, an expression of vitality perhaps, compared to the somewhat mechanical behaviour of their predecessors. The same might be said of blank voting or annotating the ballot paper, while alternative forms of political engagement have been encouraged by the Internet. Above all, the development of women’s apprenticeship in voting has benefited from gender parity in candidatures and the number of females in elected office has increased enormously. In short, learning to vote remains a work in progress.

Sisterly Discussions about Black Women Candidates

In this chapter, through a focus group with members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the authors query a set of highly politically engaged Black women about the importance of appearance to this group of political elites. As a historically Black Greek Letter Organization, this sorority has, throughout its history, upheld restrictive and controlling cultural norms that disproportionately impact Black women. Yet, the authors’ findings demonstrate that while there are different preferences and tactics that Black sorority-member voters think are most useful for other Black women to gain elected office, those voters are uniform in their desire to see successful Black women political elites. The authors also observe a generational split regarding the perceived political implications for Black women candidates with natural hair, which the focus group participants tie back to respectability politics. The chapter concludes by highlighting the differences in how younger Black sorority members think about the politics of appearance and the implications for these differences for the future of Black women political elites.