Hostname: page-component-5f56664f6-n72nm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-07T21:19:04.802Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Politics and the Spread of Quotas for Women in Legislatures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2011

Sarah Sunn Bush
Sarah Sunn Bush
Affiliation:
Politics at Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Quotas to promote women's representation in the world's legislatures have spread to more than one hundred countries. The diffusion of gender quotas poses a puzzle since they have often been adopted in countries where women have low status. International influence and inducements best explain quota adoption in developing countries. Promoting gender equality, including through gender quotas, has become a key part of international democracy promotion. The international legitimacy of gender quotas leads them to be adopted through two causal pathways: directly, through postconflict peace operations, and indirectly, by encouraging countries, especially those that depend on foreign aid, to signal their commitment to democracy by adopting quotas. An event history analysis, which controls for other relevant factors, shows that the hypothesized relationships exist. Further support comes from a process-tracing analysis of Afghanistan's 2004 quota.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 103 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Abirafeh, Lina. 2009. Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company.Google Scholar
Araújo, Clara, and García, Ana Isabel. 2006. Latin America: The Experience and the Impact of Quotas in Latin America. In Women, Quotas, and Politics, edited by Dahlerup, Drude, 83–111. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ballington, Julie, and Dahlerup, Drude. 2006. Gender Quotas in Post-Conflict States: East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. In Women, Quotas, and Politics, edited by Dahlerup, Drude, 249–58. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bauer, Antje. 2002. Afghan Women and the Democratic Reconstruction of Afghanistan: Findings and Interviews from a Journalist's Field Trip. Berlin: Berghof Research Center.Google Scholar
Beaulieu, Emily, and Hyde, Susan D.. 2009. In the Shadow of Democracy Promotion: Strategic Manipulation, International Observers, and Election Boycotts. Comparative Political Studies 42 (3):392–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Thorsten, Clarke, George, Groff, Alberto, Keefer, Philip, and Walsh, Patrick. 2001. New Tools in Comparative Political Economy: The Database of Political Institutions. World Bank Economic Review 15 (1):165–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckwith, Karen. 2003. The Gendering Ways of States: Women's Representation and State Configuration in France, Great Britain, and the United States. In Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State, edited by Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen, and Rucht, Dieter, 169–202. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berkovitch, Nitza. 1999. From Motherhood to Citizenship: Women's Rights and International Organizations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Berry, Frances Stokes, and Berry, William D.. 1990. State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis. American Political Science Review 84 (2):395–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhavnani, Rikhil R. 2009. Do Electoral Quotas Work After They Are Withdrawn? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India. American Political Science Review 103 (1):23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Box-Steffensmeier, Janet M., and Jones, Bradford S.. 2004. Event History Modeling: A Guide for Social Scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Keith. 2006. The New Ugly Americans? Making Sense of Democracy Promotion in the Former Yugoslavia. In Transacting Transition: The Micropolitics of Democracy Assistance in the Former Yugoslavia, edited by Brown, Keith, 1–22. Bloomfield, Conn.: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
Burnell, Peter J. 2000. Democracy Assistance: The State of the Discourse. In Democracy Assistance: International Co-operation for Democratization, edited by Burnell, Peter J., 3–33. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Carothers, Thomas. 1999. Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Carothers, Thomas. 2006. The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion. Foreign Affairs 85 (2):55–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caul, Miki. 2001. Political Parties and the Adoption of Candidate Gender Quotas: A Cross-National Analysis. Journal of Politics 63 (4):1214–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Duflo, Esther. 2004. Women as Policymakers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India. Econometrica 72 (5):1409–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Janine A. 2006. The Conditions of Islamist Moderation: Unpacking Cross-Ideological Cooperation in Jordan. International Journal of Middle East Studies 38 (4):539–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, Kimberley 2007. Democratic Designs: International Intervention and Electoral Practices in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Michael, Ikenberry, G. John, and Inoguchi, Takashi. 2000. Introduction. In American Democracy Promotion: Impulses, Strategies, and Impacts, edited by Cox, Michael, Ikenberry, G. John, and Inoguchi, Takashi, 1–17. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crocker, Adriana. 2009. Gender Quotas in Latin America: Analyzing Diffusion at Cross-National and Sub-National Levels. Paper presented at the 50th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, February, New York.Google Scholar
Dahlerup, Drude. 2006. Introduction. In Women, Quotas, and Politics, edited by Dahlerup, Drude, 3–31. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., and Powell, Walter W.. 1983. The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphisms and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review 48 (2):147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellerby, Kara. 2009. Inclusion Diffusion: The Dynamics of Quota Diffusion. Paper presented at the 50th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, February, New York.Google Scholar
Ferguson, James. 1990. The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘Development,’ Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Finkel, Steven E., Pérez-Liñán, Aníbal, and Seligson, Mitchell A.. 2007. The Effects of U.S. Foreign Assistance on Democracy Building, 1990–2003. World Politics 59 (3):404–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. National Interests in International Society. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. International Norm Dynamics and Political Change. International Organization 52 (4):887–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fish, M. Steven. 2002. Islam and Authoritarianism. World Politics 55 (1):4–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleschenberg, Andrea. 2009. Afghanistan's Parliament in the Making: Gendered Understandings and Practices of Politics in a Transitional Country. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Foundation.Google Scholar
Franzese, Robert J. Jr., and Hays, Jude C.. 2009. The Spatial Probit Model of Interdependent Binary Outcomes: Estimation, Interpretation, and Presentation. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society, March, Las Vegas, Nev.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girod, Desha M., Krasner, Stephen D., and Stoner-Weiss, Kathryn. 2009. Governance and Foreign Assistance: The Imperfect Translation of Ideas into Outcomes. In Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law: American and European Strategies, edited by Magen, Amichai A., Risse, Thomas, and McFaul, Michael A., 61–92. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Wallensteen, Peter, Eriksson, Mikael, Sollenberg, Margareta, and Strand, Håvard. 2002. Armed Conflict 1946–2001: A New Dataset. Journal of Peace Research 39 (5):615–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, Judith, and Keohane, Robert O.. 1993. Ideas and Foreign Policy: An Analytical Framework. In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Goldstein, Judith and Keohane, Robert O., 3–30. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gourevitch, Peter G. 1978. The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics. International Organization 32 (4):881–912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guilhot, Nicolas. 2005. The Democracy Makers: Human Rights and International Order. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, Peter M. 1992. Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination. International Organization 46 (1):1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M. 2005. Trading Human Rights: How Preferential Trade Agreements Influence Government Repression. International Organization 59 (3):593–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., and Ron, James. 2009. Seeing Double: Human Rights Impact Through Qualitative and Quantitative Eyes. World Politics 61 (2):360–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., and Tsutsui, Kiyoteru. 2007. Justice Lost! The Failure of International Human Rights Law to Matter Where Needed Most. Journal of Peace Research 44 (4):407–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Melanie M. 2009. Armed Conflict, International Linkages, and Women's Parliamentary Representation in Developing Nations. Social Problems 56 (1):174–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurd, Ian. 2007. After Anarchy: Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hyde, Susan D. 2007. The Observer Effect in International Politics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment. World Politics 60 (1):37–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyde, Susan D. 2008. Catch Me If You Can: Why Leaders Invite International Election Monitors and Cheat in Front of Them. Unpublished manuscript, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Ikenberry, G. John. 1993. Creating Yesterday's New World Order: Keynesian ‘New Thinking’ and the Anglo-American Postwar Settlement. In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Goldstein, Judith and Keohane, Robert O., 57–86. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, King, Gary, and Lau, Olivia. 2007. Zelig: Everyone's Statistical Software. Available at ⟨http://www.GKing.harvard.edu/zelig⟩. Accessed 22 July 2010.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, King, Gary, and Lau, Olivia. 2008. Toward A Common Framework for Statistical Analysis and Development. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 17 (4):892–913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris, Pippa. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Jeffrey T. 2005. The Globalizers: Development Workers in Action. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joachim, Jutta. 2003. Framing Issues and Seizing Opportunities: The UN, NGOs, and Women's Rights. International Studies Quarterly 47 (2):247–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Mark P. 2009. Gender Quotas, Electoral Laws, and the Election of Women: Evidence from the Latin American Vanguard. Comparative Political Studies 42 (1):56–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahler, Miles. 2009. Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance. In Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance, edited by Kahler, Miles, 1–20. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, Judith. 2008. Assessing the Complex Evolution of Norms: The Rise of International Election Monitoring. International Organization 62 (2):221–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley, Judith. 2009. D-Minus Elections: The Politics and Norms of International Election Observation. International Organization 63 (4):765–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keohane, Robert O., and Nye, Joseph S.. 1974. Transgovernmental Relations and International Organization. World Politics 27 (1):39–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krook, Mona Lena. 2006. Reforming Representation: The Diffusion of Candidate Gender Quotas Worldwide. Politics & Gender 2 (3):303–27.Google Scholar
Krook, Mona Lena. 2009. Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan A.. 2005. International Linkage and Democratization. Journal of Democracy 16 (3):20–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, Evan S. 2005. Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research. American Political Science Review 99 (3):435–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magen, Amichai A., and McFaul, Michael A.. 2009. Introduction: American and European Strategies to Promote Democracy—Shared Values, Common Challenges, Divergent Tools? In Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law: American and European Strategies, edited by Magen, Amichai A., Risse, Thomas, and McFaul, Michael A., 1–33. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., and Jaggers, Keith. 2007. Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2006. Dataset Users' Manual. Center for Systemic Peace.Google Scholar
Merritt, Jeff S. 2006. Quick Impact, Slow Recovery? Funders' Priorities and the Local Realities of Transition Programming. In Transacting Transition: The Micropolitics of Democracy Assistance in the Former Yugoslavia, edited by Brown, Keith, 22–44. Bloomfield, Conn.: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., Boli, John, Thomas, George M., and Ramirez, Francisco O.. 1997. World Society and the Nation-State. American Journal of Sociology 103 (1):144–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morin, Robert J., and Stinson, Dana S.. 2001. Transitioning to Long-Term Development: An Evaluation of the USAID/OTI Program in Kosovo. Burlington, Vt.: ARD. Available at ⟨http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnacn234.pdf⟩. Accessed 22 September 2010.Google Scholar
National Endowment for Democracy. 2004. 2003 NED Annual Report. Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for Democracy.Google Scholar
Nawabi, Mariam. 2003. Women's Rights in the New Constitution of Afghanistan. Working Paper.New York: Afghanistan Reconstruction Project, Center on International Cooperation, New York University. Available at ⟨http://www.cic.nyu.edu/afghanistan/constitution.html⟩. Accessed 22 September 2010.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2004. Implementing Women's Representation in Afghanistan's Electoral Law: Options for Reserved Seats. Working Paper.New York: Afghanistan Reconstruction Project, Center on International Cooperation, New York University. Available at ⟨http://www.cic.nyu.edu/afghanistan/constitution.html⟩. Accessed 22 September 2010.Google Scholar
Oates, Lauryn. 2009. A Closer Look: The Policy and Law-Making Process Behind the Shiite Personal Status Law. Issue Paper.Kabul, Afghan.: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. Available at ⟨http://www.areu.org.af⟩. Accessed 22 September 2010.Google Scholar
Paris, Roland. 2004. At War's End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, Anne Mariel, and Moore, Pete W.. 2009. Beyond Boom and Bust: External Rents, Durable Authoritarianism, and Institutional Adaptation in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Studies in Comparative International Development 44 (3):256–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pevehouse, Jon C. 2002. Democracy from the Outside-In? International Organizations and Democratization. International Organization 56 (3):515–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pires, Milena. 2002. East Timor and the Debate on Quotas. Paper presented at the International IDEA Workshop on the Implementation of Quotas: Asian Experiences, September, Jakarta, Indonesia.Google Scholar
Ramirez, Francisco O., Soysal, Yasemin, and Shanahan, Suzanne. 1997. The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990. American Sociological Review 62 (5):735–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, Andrew. 1999. Women in the Legislatures and Executives of the World: Knocking at the Highest Glass Ceiling. World Politics 51 (4):547–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, Andrew. 2006. The Curious Case of Afghanistan. Journal of Democracy 17 (2):104–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Barnett R. 2004. Crafting a Constitution for Afghanistan. Journal of Democracy 15 (3):5–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, Beth A. 2009. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, Beth A., Dobbin, Frank, and Garrett, Geoffrey. 2006. Introduction: The International Diffusion of Liberalism. International Organization 60 (4):781–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. 2004. A New World Order. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tansey, Oisín. 2007. Process Tracing and Elite Interviewing: A Case for Non-probability Sampling. PS: Political Science & Politics 40 (4):765–72.Google Scholar
Tripp, Aili Mari, and Kang, Alice. 2008. The Global Impact of Quotas: On the Fast Track to Increased Female Legislative Representation. Comparative Political Studies 41 (3):338–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
True, Jacqui, and Minstrom, Michael. 2001. Transnational Networks and Policy Diffusion: The Case of Gender Mainstreaming. International Studies Quarterly 45 (1):27–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolbrecht, Christina, and Campbell, David E.. 2007. Leading by Example: Female Members of Parliament as Political Role Models. American Journal of Political Science 51 (4):921–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wotipka, Christine Min, and Ramirez, Francisco O.. 2008. World Society and Human Rights: An Event History Analysis of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In The Global Diffusion of Markets and Democracy, edited by Simmons, Beth A., Dobbin, Frank, and Garrett, Geoffrey, 303–43. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Youngs, Richard. 2004. International Democracy and the West: The Role of Governments, Civil Society, and Multinational Business. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar