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Stuck in the Basement: A Pathway Case Analysis of Female Recruitment in Hungary's 2010 National Assembly Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2016

Kathleen A. Montgomery
Affiliation:
Illinois Wesleyan University
Gabriella Ilonszki
Affiliation:
Corvinus University of Budapest

Abstract

Women's legislative underrepresentation has emerged as perhaps the most stable feature of the postcommunist Hungarian political system, resisting Europeanization, changes in the electoral and party systems, and a new constitution. Early research on the decline in women's access to power in postcommunist transitional democracies focused on common legacies of communist rule, but those legacies cannot account for widening disparities in women's representation across the region over time or the persistent underrepresentation of women in Hungary. Using a pathway case analysis of Hungary's 2010 parliamentary elections, this research examines how cultural, structural, and institutional factors interacted to keep Hungary stuck in the basement with respect to women's legislative recruitment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

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