Cabinet Representation Research Articles

Ethnic cabinet diversity, co-ethnic representation, and attitudes toward government

ABSTRACT Does co-ethnic cabinet representation change how people respond to increasing ethnic cabinet diversity? Existing literature studies co-ethnic representation and cabinet diversity separately. I argue that the interaction between co-ethnic cabinet representation and ethnic cabinet diversity lowers government confidence and impacts feelings of ethnic fairness. Using a newly constructed dataset linking both the World Values Survey and the Afrobarometer to country-year measures of ethnic cabinet diversity, I find that interacting co-ethnic representation with ethnic cabinet diversity largely has the expected results. Country leaders should think carefully about how to manage cabinet appointments in order to improve attitudes toward government.

Gendering Coalitional Presidentialism in Brazil

Coalitional presidentialism is a power-sharing strategy deployed in multiparty presidentialist democracies that entails the distribution of cabinet positions to coalition partners to facilitate governability. This model of governance is increasingly common worldwide, gaining growing scholarly interest. The consequences of coalitional presidentialism for women’s cabinet representation, however, have received scant attention. In this article, we provide a gendered analysis of the Brazilian experience with coalitional presidentialism. Through the quantitative analysis of an original dataset of all ministerial appointments ( N = 597) under eight Brazilian presidents (1985–2019) and a descriptive assessment of the coalitional dynamics during that period, we evaluate the Brazilian experience with coalitional presidentialism through the lens of Feminist Institutionalism. We show that coalitional presidentialism restricts women's access to cabinet seats, with the demands of multiparty coalition formation and management often overriding presidential considerations about descriptive representation, and coalition parties rarely advancing women to fill portfolios allocated to them by the president.

Effect of Boundary Conditions on Seismic Response of Electrical Equipment subjected to High-Frequency Ground Motions

The updated ground motion hazard in Central and Eastern United States contains high frequency motions. Such motions do not cause structural damage. However, safety-related electrical equipment are sensitive to high-frequency accelerations. Seismic qualification of electrical equipment requires an in-cabinet response spectrum (ICRS) which depends on the dynamic response of electrical cabinets and buildings. A linear analysis to generate ICRS can give excessively high spectral accelerations. Cabinet models with geometric nonlinearities such as a gap in the connection with building floor show that high-frequency accelerations may not propagate to the electrical equipment. Unlike linear analysis, results from nonlinear analysis of a building-cabinet model with a gap show a periodic pattern of secondary peaks and valleys at higher frequencies. In this research, the unique observation of secondary peaks is explained through fundamental principles by considering the sliding response of a cabinet representation with gap subjected to harmonic excitation. It is observed that a periodic pattern of peaks and valleys exist due to a significantly large contribution from transient response, due to localized impacts at the gap in cabinet base, and its interaction with the steady-state response.

Democratization and women’s representation in presidential cabinets: evidence from East and Southeast Asia

ABSTRACTThis article examines patterns of women’s cabinet representation across all presidential democracies in East and Southeast Asia since democratization. It demonstrates how the choice of female ministers differs across career backgrounds in presidential systems and further examines why young presidential systems in Asia are conducive to women’s access to ministerial power through professional career tracks. We argue that despite women’s successful performance in national legislative elections, women have been restricted to access the power resources necessary to target other political goals, such as cabinet positions, whereas democratic transition has provided broader avenues for women to emerge as professionals outside party politics. By analyzing original data on female ministers in East and Southeast Asia, the study finds that the share of women among professional ministers has increased over time, but women’s share among political ministers has not changed significantly. Additionally, the different qualifications of female politicians and professionals also make them eligible for appointment to different types of policy areas in terms of prestige and gender. Our analysis suggests that women’s cabinet representation has improved overall since democratic transition in Asia, but this improvement disguises contrasting outcomes in women’s cabinet status according to their career backgrounds.

The Proportion of Women in Legislatures and Cabinets: What is the Empirical Link?

Although the cabinet arguably is more important to governmental decision-making processes and policy implementation than the legislature, most studies of women’s representation focus on legislatures. These studies have established the institutional, economic, and cultural factors for between-country variation in women’s legislative representation, but a baseline model to explain women’s cabinet representation is lacking. In particular, the literature has not conclusively determined whether there is a contagion effect between women’s representation in legislatures and in cabinets, and whether this effect is different in parliamentary and non-parliamentary systems. In this article, I address these questions by analyzing a global dataset with information on 194 countries from 1965 to 2014. I find a solid link between the proportion of women in the legislature and in the cabinet, and show that parliamentary systems have more women representatives in both legislatures and cabinets than do presidential systems.

The Representation of Women in African Legislatures and Cabinets: An Examination with Reference to Ghana

ABSTRACTWhy do some countries with low levels of women’s legislative representation have high levels of women’s cabinet representation? We focus on sub-Saharan Africa to show that countries with high levels of women’s legislative representation do not necessarily have high levels of women’s cabinet representation and discuss how legislative laggards can emerge as cabinet leaders through a case study of Ghana. We argue that three factors—a conducive institutional environment, an international context stressing gender-balanced decision making, and an autonomous domestic women’s movement—promote women’s incorporation into cabinets, even when pathways to legislative incorporation remain blocked.

Presidentas Rise: Consequences for Women in Cabinets?

AbstractSince 1999, women have democratically won the presidency eight times in Latin America and have named hundreds of ministers. This study argues that under certain conditions,presidentasare more likely than male presidents to improve women's cabinet representation. Two mechanisms,presidentamandates and gendered networks, appear to drive the relationship. Furthermore, because the pool of ministerial candidates is shallower for women than for men,presidentasare most likely to advance women's representation in cabinets at the beginning of their term and for “feminine” ministries. A case study of Michelle Bachelet's 2006 ministerial appointments reveals initial evidence for the argument. Empirical implications are then tested with an original dataset of 1,908 ministers of all democratically elected Latin American presidents since 1999. Model results are consistent with the theory thatpresidentasare most likely to “make a difference” when they are least constrained by the supply of female ministerial candidates.

Do Development and Democracy Positively Affect Gender Equality in Cabinets?

AbstractIt has been argued that economic development and democracy create new opportunities and resources for women to access political power, which should increase gender equality in politics. However, empirical evidence from previous research that supports this argument is mixed. The contribution of this study is to expand the research on gender equality in politics through an in-depth examination of the effect of development and democracy on gender equality in cabinets. This has been completed through separate analyses that include most of the countries in the world across three levels of development (least-developed, developing, and developed) and across different types of political regimes (democracies, royal dictatorships, military dictatorships, and civilian dictatorships). The results demonstrate that economic development and democracy only affect gender equality in cabinets positively in a few environments. Accordingly, the context is important and there seem to be thresholds before development and democracy have any effect. Development has a positive effect in developed countries and in democracies, but it has a negative effect in dictatorships, and the negative effect is strongest in military dictatorships. The level of democracy has a positive effect mainly in dictatorships, and the strongest effect is in civilian dictatorships. The article demonstrates the importance of dividing samples into subsets to increase understanding of what affects women's representation in cabinets in different environments, and I ask scholars to subset samples and run separate analyses more often in comparative studies.

Women in cabinet and public health spending: evidence across countries

This article studies the effect of women’s cabinet representation on public health policy outcomes. Based on a large sample of countries in the year 2000, the analysis shows that an increase in the share of women in cabinet is associated with an increase in public health spending. There is also an indication of a decrease in the gender gap in life expectancies in places with higher cabinet representation of women. The endogeneity of women’s cabinet representation is accounted for by using the share of daughters that a national leader parents as an instrument.

Presidential Gender and Women's Representation in Cabinets: Do Female Presidents Appoint More Women than Male Presidents?

Do female presidents appoint more women to their cabinets than male presidents? I argue that female presidents are more likely to name more female ministers only when they govern countries that already are on the path towards greater gender equality in the cabinet. This paper uses an original dataset of 1,086 ministers from inaugural presidential cabinets in 18 Latin American countries from 1999-2013. The results of logistic regression show that presidential gender has a significant effect on the probability of observing a female minister, and the magnitude of this effect depends on country-specific levels of cabinet gender inequality. The final section explores extreme cases of female presidents (1) accommodating to the status quo (Cristina Fernandez in Argentina 2007); and (2) challenging conventions by promoting gender parity in the cabinet (Michelle Bachelet in Chile 2006). Using statistics and qualitative analysis in a synergistic fashion, this paper thus features a “nested research design” (Lieberman 2005).

Gender Norms and Women's Political Representation: A Global Analysis of Cabinets, 1979–2009

What role does the international diffusion of gender norms play in determining recent increases in women's political representation? We argue that norm diffusion has larger positive effects on women's cabinet representation than on women's legislative representation. We also show that within cabinets, norm diffusion affects low‐prestige appointments more than high‐prestige appointments. We test these arguments using an original database of ministers from 1979 to 2009 and find that the association of women's representation with three separate indicators of international diffusion—levels of women's representation among neighboring states, levels of women's representation among intergovernmental organization partners, and time since ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women—is consistent with our arguments.

“Her Excellency”: An Exploratory Overview of Women Cabinet Ministers in Africa

The number of women cabinet ministers in several African countries has increased recently while remaining small in others. In this exploratory overview, we investigate women’s growing presence in cabinets across sub-Saharan Africa, providing a recent ranking for women’s cabinet representation. We attempt to determine why some countries have more women ministers than others, comparing generalist versus specialist appointments and normative influences on governments. Further, we seek to determine the impact of more women ministers by investigating substantive and symbolic representation effects. We find that specialist recruitment appears to have created more ministerial opportunities for women than generalist; regional and international norms have contributed to increasing the number of women cabinet ministers in some countries; and there is evidence of substantive and symbolic representation effects of more women in cabinets in some African countries. Finally, we consider areas for future research around women cabinet ministers in Africa.

'We Like Local Patriotism': The Conservative Party and the Discourse of Decentralisation, 1947 51

This article offers a new reading of Conservative approaches to territorial government in the UK in the early years of the Cold War. As is well known, the Conservatives enhanced the place of both Scotland and Wales in Government on their return to office in 1951. The former gained a new Minister of State (Alec Douglas-Home) to support the existing Secretary of State; the latter a Minister for Welsh Affairs (Sir David Maxwell Fyfe), and Cabinet representation for the first time. Hitherto, these concessions have been explained primarily with reference to the internal politics of the two countries concerned, and particularly the pressures of local nationalism. In this article, the policies are examined from a central perspective, and the rhetorical context of the Scottish and Welsh policies compared with that surrounding the Conservatives’ proposals to reform local government in England. Together, it is argued, they reveal the importance of decentralisation to Conservative attempts to combat Labour between 1947 and 1951. The Conservatives championed a State in which the reach of the State carefully delimited and local patriotism celebrated as a cornerstone of a distinctively ‘British way of life’. Labour, by contrast, was presented as wishing to subsume these historical differences within a uniform Socialist State controlled from London – or Moscow. In the atmosphere of growing alarm that characterised the early years of the Cold War, the Conservatives used a discourse of decentralisation to represent the cultural and economic absolutism of a Socialism’ as both unhistorical and un-British.

The influence of local politicians on pedestrian safety

Aim: To determine whether local politicians influence the distribution of traffic calming measures. Methods: Longitudinal ecological study in two UK cities. Local political constituencies were categorized by representation by members...