Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T02:59:27.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revealing the “Secret Garden”: The Informal Dimensions of Political Recruitment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2015

Elin Bjarnegård  and
Meryl Kenny
Elin Bjarnegård
Affiliation:
Uppsala University
Meryl Kenny
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Candidate selection and recruitment has been notably described as the “secret garden” of politics—an obscure process, often hidden from view, that is regulated largely by internal party rules, informal practices, and power relationships (cf. Gallagher and Marsh 1988). In this contribution, we contend that informal party practices and their gendered consequences are critically important for understanding the continuity of male political dominance and female underrepresentation. Rather than make a strict separation between formal and informal rules in the recruitment process, we argue that gender politics scholars must instead identify and empirically investigate the specific combinations of such rules that impact upon women's and men's political participation in parties. The proposed approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of the bounded nature and variable outcomes of institutional innovation and party change.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 748 - 753
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Baldez, Lisa. 2007. “Primaries v. Quotas: Gender and Candidate Nominations in Mexico, 2003.” Latin American Politics and Society 49 (3): 69–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjarnegård, Elin. 2013. Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Chappell, Louise. 2006. “Comparing Political Institutions: Revealing the Gendered “Logic of Appropriateness.” Politics & Gender 2 (2): 223–35.Google Scholar
Dahlerup, Drude, and Freidenvall, Lenita. 2005. “Quotas as a ‘Fast Track’ to Equal Representation for Women.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 7 (1): 26–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franceschet, Susan, and Piscopo, Jennifer. 2014. “Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power and Elite Networks in Argentina.” Comparative Political Studies 47 (1): 85–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freidenberg, Flavia, and Levitsky, Steven. 2006. “Informal Institutions and Party Organization in Latin America.” In Informal Institutions and Democracy, ed. Helmke, Gretchen and Levitsky, Steven. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 178–200.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Michael, and Marsh, Michael, eds. 1988. Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hanmer, Jalma. 1990. “Men, Power and the Exploitation of Women.” In Men, Masculinities and Social Theory, ed. Hearn, Jeff and Morgan, David. London and New York: Unwin & Hyman and Routledge, 21–42.Google Scholar
Helmke, Gretchen, and Levitsky, Steven. 2004. “Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda.” Perspectives on Politics 2 (4): 725–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinojosa, Magda. 2012. Selecting Women, Electing Women: Political Representation and Candidate Selection in Latin America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Kenny, Meryl. 2013. Gender and Political Recruitment: Theorizing Institutional Change. Basingstoke: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowndes, Vivien. 2014. “How Are Things Done Around Here? Uncovering Institutional Rules and their Gendered Effects.” Politics & Gender 10 (4): 685–91.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni. 2005. Feminizing Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Mackay, Fiona. 2014. “Nested Newness, Institutional Innovation, and the Gendered Limits of Change.” Politics & Gender 10 (4): 549–71.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 1999. “Institutional Rational Choice: An Analysis of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework.” In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. Sabatier, Paul. Boulder, CO: Westview, 35–72.Google Scholar
Puwar, Nirmal. 2004. “Thinking about Making a Difference.” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 6 (1): 65–80.Google Scholar
Reiser, Marion. 2014. “The Universe of Group Representation in Germany: Analysing Formal and Informal Party Rules and Quotas in the Process of Candidate Selection.” International Political Science Review 35 (1): 55–61.Google Scholar
Siavelis, Peter M., and Morgenstern, Scott. 2008. “Candidate Recruitment and Selection in Latin America: A Framework for Analysis.” Latin American Politics and Society 50 (4): 27–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar