The effects of electoral systems on women's representation in post-communist states

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between electoral systems and female representation in four post-communist states that use mixed electoral systems. Mixed electoral systems provide an excellent laboratory to test electoral system effects because voters cast two ballots under very different electoral rules. If the PR and SMD tiers of mixed elections are treated separately, one can study the effect of different electoral systems while holding all other factors constant. I find that unlike consolidated democracies, post-communist states do not experience statistically significant differences in the proportion of women elected to the legislature in the PR and SMD tiers of their mixed systems. In one case, Russia, the relationship runs counter to expectations—women perform better in the SMD tier than in the PR tier. I propose several reasons for these differences.