Are Segmental Parties Bad for Women? Rethinking the Challenges of Representation in Consociational Power-Sharing

Abstract

ABSTRACT Consociational power-sharing mandates representation of politically salient groups in government and encourages their participation in decision making. This leaves identities and issues not centrally related to the primary political division technically negligible for political stability. That cross-segmental policy issues in general and those specifically of concerns to women in divided societies enjoy low priority in dominant political parties is well documented. There is no agreement on why it is so. This paper analyses the system-level incentives that segmental parties in Northern Ireland follow when crowding out concerns and interests that might be relevant for individual voters identifying primarily outside the established politically salient cleavages. We conclude that in Northern Ireland, the systematic marginalisation of ‘women-specific issues’ is not systemic but rather highlights system-given opportunities for major political parties to avoid engagement with socially salient issues at no electoral cost.