Affirmative action measures and electoral candidates’ positioning in Zambia

Vibeke Wang,Yvette Peters,Ragnhild L Muriaas

doi:10.1017/s0022278x21000264

Abstract

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.

Highlights

In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, there is broad agreement that gender equality and women’s empowerment are desirable goals, for instance reflected in international agreements and norms, including the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG # )
Studies have pointed to how certain types of gender quotas are not likely to be effective in majoritarian electoral systems (Larserud & Taphorn ), which justifies a careful examination of what type of affirmative action measures work best in African countries with an anglophone institutional legacy
Overall, reserved seats was the solution most candidates identified as best to solve the problem of gender imbalance in political recruitment; this is the most demanding measure and requires the most change out of the options we identified in our typology of affirmative action measures

Summary

Introduction

In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, there is broad agreement that gender equality and women’s empowerment are desirable goals, for instance reflected in international agreements and norms, including the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG # ). One concern is that in the absence of interventions that force party leaders to select women, they tend to recruit men (e.g. Butler & Preece ). This has amongst other reasons led to an unprecedented interest in studies of gender quotas (Muriaas et al ; Bauer ; Kang & Tripp ). Building on earlier works on electoral funding initiatives in Zambia (Geisler ; Sampa ) and neighbouring Malawi (Wang & Muriaas ), we argue that our typologies must acknowledge that other options than electoral quotas are available on the route to achieving parity. We develop a context-specific typology including the following four affirmative action measures: ( ) reserved seats; ( ) party quotas; ( ) gender-targeted public funding of parties; and ( ) candidate-directed funding

Objectives

Results

Conclusion