Substantive Representation Research Articles

The Politics of Gender Policies: A Comparative Framework applied to the Peruvian Case

Through an analysis of gender policies, this article seeks to advance the study of women’s substantive representation. Traditional and non-traditional actors or agents shape policy outcomes, but it is important to observe the policy environment and political opportunities that are involved in reforms. Selected gender policies in the Peruvian context provide evidence of such dynamics. This article proposes a framework for analysing variations in gender policy outcomes in the Peruvian case by mapping factors of influence such as the presence of critical actors (e.g. National Congress, non-government organisations, government agencies), features of the policy environment (international legal standards and public opinion) and presidential support. The author argues that gender equality policies are influenced by the usual policy-making elements but also by the doctrines of the Catholic Church and, more recently, evangelical churches. The article also critically examines the instrumentality of unexpected allies as regards the discourse on women’s rights, and it sheds light on the role of church-state relations in framing the policy debate. As the literature suggests, an enabling environment and a confluence of agents are required to implement policy reforms. However, the effect of presidential support in regimes that hinder major policy reforms relating to women’s rights is much more important than theory has anticipated.

Contained or represented? The varied consequences of reserved seats for emigrants in the legislatures of Ecuador and Colombia

The legislatures of Colombia and Ecuador have reserved seats for their non-resident citizens (emigrants). This paper analyses the relationship between the formal, descriptive, and substantive dimensions of emigrant representation in their homeland legislatures. The analysis compares the legislative work of emigrant MPs (EMPs) with the legislative work of non-emigrant MPs (NEMPs) in Ecuador and Colombia. It presents a mixed methods approach that combines a quantitative text analysis based on an original dataset –composed of 35,446 floor speeches– with in-depth interviews with six EMPs. The results show that emigrant-related issues are significantly more salient in the legislature of Ecuador and Colombia suggesting that the effect of emigrant-reserved seats is correlated to the size of the external district. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that EMPs have a ‘mixed agenda’ composed by emigrant and domestic-related issues. Finally, the article shows that the probability of classifying a speech as emigrant-related increases when it is given by an EMP and not a NEMP. This effect is stronger in Ecuador than in Colombia. All in all, the article shows evidence that configurations that allocate several EMPs are more efficient in achieving substantive representation.

Who Represents Women in Turkey? An Analysis of Gender Difference in Private Bill Sponsorship in the 2011–15 Turkish Parliament

AbstractIn this study, we examine substantive representation of women in the 2011–15 Turkish Parliament by focusing on sponsorship of private members’ bills by members of parliament (MPs) across eight major issue areas. The Turkish case offers new insights into women's representation, not only because this topic is unexplored in the Turkish context but also because it provides an opportunity to examine the tension between gender as a social identity and ideology as a political identity in a legislature characterized by disciplined political parties and low gender parity. Findings indicate that women MPs in Turkey substantively represent women by sponsoring more bills on women's rights and equality issues than their male colleagues, despite their low numbers in parliament and affiliation with highly disciplined parties. Party ideology also shapes women MPs’ issue priorities depending on the emphasis placed by the parties on different issue areas. Whereas left-wing women MPs sponsor more bills on women's rights and equality issues defined with a feminist accent, right-wing women MPs sponsor more bills on issues regarding children and family. Left-wing women also differ significantly from right-wing women in their sponsorship of bills on health and social affairs issues, as left-wing parties prioritize those issues more than right-wing parties.

Do citizens make inferences from political candidate characteristics when aiming for substantive representation?

We elicit citizens' preferences over hypothetical candidates by applying conjoint survey experiments within a probability-based online panel of the Norwegian electorate. Our experimental treatments differ in whether citizens receive information about candidates' social characteristics only, candidates' issue positions only, or both. From this, we identify whether citizens are able to infer substantive policy positions from the descriptive characteristics of potential representatives and use that information to make candidate choices that achieve substantive representation. We find that candidate choice is driven more by knowledge about candidates' issue positions than by knowledge about their social characteristics and that citizens value substantive representation more robustly than descriptive representation. Importantly, while the direct experimental test of whether voters use the information they obtain from descriptive markers to choose a candidate that gives them substantive representation is inconclusive, we find that voters form beliefs about candidates' issue positions based solely on candidates’ social characteristics.

Know Me Before You Speak for Me: Substantive Public Representation Among Nonprofits

Nonprofit and public administration scholars have increasingly turned attention to the wide variety of channels by which nonprofit organizations may influence public policy, raising critical questions about nonprofit representation. While recent years have brought important work about the extent to which nonprofits are perceived as symbolic representatives of their clients, scholars repeatedly note substantive representation remains understudied. This article seeks to address that gap by offering a conceptual framework of potential nonprofit substantive representation mechanisms. Two categories of mechanisms emerged from a scan of scholarly and practitioner literature—client engagement and client assessment, while an exploratory case study of one nonprofit’s explicit endeavor to improve substantive representation surfaced a third category—immersion. We offer this framework as a useful first step in organizing and presenting mechanisms for consideration, and to encourage future exploration and testing of mechanisms by which nonprofits may come to substantively understand those whom they represent.

Representação descritiva em assembleias legislativas: gênero e raça como categorias de análise política

Based on empirical data, this article explores the relationships between the descriptive and substantive representation of women and black people in state assemblies in three regions of Brazil. The proposed model, based on the analysis of roles and electoral socialization mechanisms, compares the descriptive and substantive representation of women (N = 15) with a random sample of male deputies (N = 65), which made it possible to measure possible effects caused by factors such as gender and skin color in the legislative production and in the parliamentary performance of the sampled deputies. Data were collected from the biographical repertoire and legislative production of deputies. Personal interviews were carried out and a questionnaire of 65 items was administered. Correlations between the variables of interest and the profiles of the deputies, their political trajectory, and parliamentary activity were established. A sample of men legislators was compared against a sample of female ones. Compared to the male group, significantly higher rates of female deputies’ specific legislative production were found, although not all members of the descriptive groups behave as ambassadors or ground their parliamentary activities mainly on issues pertaining to democracy of race and gender. Keywords: legislative, descriptive representation, gender, race.

Forging Women's Substantive Representation: Intersectional Interests, Political Parity, and Pensions in Bolivia

AbstractLacking tools to measure substantive representation, empirical research to date has determined women’s substantive representation by identifying “women’s interests” a priori, with little attention to differences across race, class, or other inequalities. To address this problem, I develop the concept of intersectional interests and a method for identifying these. Intersectional interests represent multiple perspectives and are forged through a process of political intersectionality that purposefully includes historically marginalized perspectives. These interests can be parsed into three types: expansionist, integrationist, and reconceived. Identification of intersectional interests requires, first, an inductive mapping of the differing women’s perspectives that exist in a specific context and then an examination of the political processes that lead to these new, redefined interests. I demonstrate the concept of intersectional interests and how to identify these in Bolivia, where I focus on the political process of forging reconceived intersectional interests in Bolivia’s political parity and pension reforms.

The Grit in the Oyster? Women’s Parliamentary Organizations and the Substantive Representation of Women

This article addresses a foundational question of political representation: how do representatives act for those they represent? In a shift away from analyses of individual representatives’ attitudes and behaviour, we identify Women’s Parliamentary Organizations as potential critical sites and critical actors for women’s substantive representation. Offering one of the most in-depth studies to date, our illustrative case is the long-standing UK Parliamentary Labour Party’s Women’s Committee. With a unique data set, and using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we systematically examine the Parliamentary Labour Party’s Women’s Committee efforts to substantively represent women over more than a decade. We find that the Committee sustains its focus on a small number of women’s issues and interacts with party leadership to advance women’s interests in a feminist direction. Our findings capture processes of political change, a frequently under-explored stage in studies of substantive representation. We close by identifying the potential for comparative research in this area.

Gender Equality Indicators for Research and Innovation from a Responsible Perspective: The Case of Spain

This article offers a Spanish national perspective that contributes to European Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) monitoring initiatives. National experts involved in gender and science and technology issues, such as policymakers, gender experts, research institutions, and equality associations, among others, have proposed indicators based on participatory decision-making techniques. The results include a complete set of 52 indicators and a reduced panel of 23 indicators—the highest-ranked ones—to monitor relevant aspects that should be measured in gender dimension from an RRI perspective: differential and asymmetric socialization and education, organizational culture, substantive representation, vertical segregation, work relations, visibility of women researchers, gender perspective in research contents, gender expertise enhancement, and resources. The results offer new indicators that differ from previous indicator panels at the European and Spanish levels in relation to those aspects that should be measured and the typology of indicators preferred. Differences suggest the need for a more nuanced debate on the purpose of indicators, and the need for national contributions to RRI and to the debate on gender perspective in EU policy. Finally, the article suggests some specific traits observed in Spain that might add to the debate on the content of an RRI gender perspective in an already developed gender policy.

Gender Differences in Local Executives: Public Policy and Intergovernmental Transfers in a Brazilian state = Diferencias de género en los ejecutivos locales: políticas públicas y transferencias intergubernamentales en un estado brasileño

Abstract. Feminist theory has offered new institutionalism key contributions as to how gender relates to public policy. Feminist institutionalism has researched the many ways wel­fare policies have impacted women and the many ways women, as elected officials, have im­pacted those policies in turn. As substantive representation research turns its eye towards legislative representatives, women in executive offices and their actions have been overlooked. As studies show, there are certain policy areas that face gender stereotypes: education, health, arts, family protection, and other welfare areas. Brazilian federalism and its execution of welfare policies is quite specific in its institutional design. Since the end of the last dictator­ship, there have been efforts towards decentralisation. States have more control over their spending; however, municipalities face stricter rules regarding taxation and how to spend it. Municipalities are in charge of executing most of Brazilian public policy, but have little control in designing them. What they are allowed to design tends to be induced through programmes and resources. Those resources for the execution of programmes come from several kinds of transfers, from federal and state governments. In the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, the Robin Hood Law states that municipalities that create institutions and/or policies in certain welfare areas will have access to slightly more resources. Research has shown that municipalities do invest in bettering themselves in this institu­tionalisation process, despite the small amount of funds that come with them. Therefore, our research asks: are female mayors more efficient in accessing specific resources from govern­ment transfers? Using regression analysis and other statistical tools, we hope to able to dem­onstrate how gender might play a role in the division of those funds. Keywords: public policy, federalism, Brazil, women mayors, gender, institutionalism. Resumen. La teoría feminista ha ofrecido contribuciones claves al nuevo institucion­alismo sobre cómo el género se relaciona con las políticas públicas. El institucionalismo femi­nista ha investigado las muchas formas en que las políticas de bienestar han impactado en las mujeres y las muchas formas en que las mujeres, como personas electas, han impactado esas políticas, a su vez. A medida que la investigación sustantiva de la representación vuelve su mi­rada hacia los representantes legislativos, las mujeres en las oficinas ejecutivas y sus acciones han sido mayoritariamente ignoradas. Como los estudios demuestran, existen ciertas áreas de la política que sufren con estereotipos de género: educación, salud, las artes, seguridad familiar y otras áreas de bienestar. El federalismo brasileño y su aplicación de las políticas de bienestar son específicas en su diseño institucional. Desde la última dicta­dura, se ha hablado de descentralización. Los estados tienen más control sobre sus gastos; sin embargo, las municipalidades están sujetas a reglas estrictas sobre cómo cobrar y usar impuestos. Los municipios están a cargo de ejecutar la mayor parte de la política pública brasileña, pero tienen poco control al diseñarlos. Lo que se les permite diseñar tiende a ser inducido a través de programas y recursos. Esos recursos para la ejecución de programas provienen de varios tipos de transferencias, de gobiernos federales y estatales. En el estado de Minas Gerais, en Brasil, la Ley Robin Hood establece que los municipios que crean instituciones y/o políticas en ciertas áreas de bienestar tendrán acceso a un poco más de recursos. Investigaciones han demostrado que los municipios sí invierten en mejorarse a sí mismos en este proceso de institucionalización, a pesar de la pequeña cantidad de fondos que vienen con ellos. Por lo tanto, nuestra investigación pregunta: ¿son las alcaldesas más eficientes en el acceso a recursos específicos de las transferencias del gobierno? Usando análisis de regresión y otras herramientas estadísticas, esperamos poder demostrar cómo el género podría desempeñar un papel en la división de esos fondos.Palabras clave: políticas públicas, federalismo, Brasil, alcaldesas, género, institucionalismo.

Careerists Versus Coal-Miners: Welfare Reforms and the Substantive Representation of Social Groups in the British Labour Party

Many parties have seen declines in working-class legislators and increases in professional career politicians. I argue that career politicians are more likely to adopt policies for strategic political reasons, whereas working-class politicians are more likely to represent the interests of working-class voters. Changes in the representation of these occupational groups matter substantively whenever legislators’ strategic concerns contradict the interests of working-class voters. Welfare reforms adopted in the 1990s and 2000s by the British Labour Party exhibit this divergence. The two types of politicians held very different policy positions, which I measure using a scaling method applied to all speeches made about welfare in the House of Commons from 1987 to 2007. The results carry over to voting behavior and are robust to alternative explanations, including other characteristics of both MPs and their voters. The changing representation of occupational groups has therefore had substantive policy effects, lowering the political influence of working-class voters.

Careerists Versus Coal-Miners: Welfare Reforms and the Substantive Representation of Social Groups in the British Labour Party:

Many parties have seen declines in working-class legislators and increases in professional career politicians. I argue that career politicians are more likely to adopt policies for strategic politi...

Political candidates’ attitudes towards group representation

ABSTRACTOur study examines the extent to which parliamentary candidates believe that membership of a certain social group allows Members of Parliament (MPs) to more effectively represent that group. Using the 2009 German Candidate Survey, we look at four social groups: women, immigrants, religious people and East Germans. The descriptive results indicate that support for group representation is highest for women and lowest for East Germans. The explanatory analyses reveal that women are more likely than men to believe that women are better at representing the interests of women. The same holds for immigrants, religious people, and East Germans. Candidates’ belief that MPs from a certain social group are better at representing that group tends to be limited to their own social group. Our results thus indicate that the belief that one should belong to a social group in order to effectively represent the interests of that group is mainly based on identity, rather than an overall belief in the link between descriptive and substantive representation. They also show that attitudes towards representation change significantly as a result of parliamentary socialisation, with candidates with parliamentary experience being significantly less likely to support the idea of group representation compared with those without such experience.

How to measure the substantive representation of traditionally excluded groups in comparative research: a literature review and new data

This article provides the necessary tools to advance comparative research studying the substantive representation of ethnic minorities and women. Firstly, I clarify how the various indicators for individual representatives’ and parliaments’ considerateness of the interests of traditionally excluded groups used in earlier (mostly single-country) studies relate to each other and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of different measures for quantitative comparative research. Secondly, the present article introduces new data comprising three indicators for the substantive representation of ethnic minorities.

Power struggles: gender equality in political representation

Gender inequality in political representation remains despite widespread and long-standing feminist campaigns for representative equality. This article suggests that in order to increase our understanding of why men’s over-representation in politics persists, gender equality in descriptive and substantive representation should be analysed as power struggles. Power is operationalised as positional power and active power, and struggle as the interaction between feminist strategies and resistance. The article offers a rereading of the scholarship on gender equality and political representation through the lens of power struggles and concludes with highlighting some future research tracks.

The Role of Gender Stereotypes in Gubernatorial Campaign Coverage

Through a content analysis of 1,152 articles covering 20 different gubernatorial races between 2004 and 2014, I examine how the presence of a woman candidate in a gubernatorial race affects media coverage of that campaign. This paper considers the prevalence of gender biases and stereotypes and examines whether print media outlets perpetuate these stereotypes or subvert them. Existing research suggests that voters favor traditionally masculine traits over traditionally feminine traits when evaluating candidates for public office. The difference in media coverage may therefore influence women’s chances of getting elected, and thereby influence women’s descriptive and substantive representation. I find that races with a woman candidate receive less issue coverage and more horse race coverage than races with two men running. Additionally, the types of adjectives used in campaign coverage differ depending on the gender of the candidate: women are more likely to be described as able to “change government,” while men are more likely to be described as “experienced.” KEYWORDS: Media Coverage; Gender; Gubernatorial Campaigns; Women in Politics; Gender Stereotypes; Newspaper Coverage; American Politics

Playing the Women’s Card: How Women Respond to Female Candidates’ Descriptive Versus Substantive Representation

When presented the choice between a male and female candidate, it is commonly assumed that women prefer a female candidate. But as more policy and ideologically diverse women run for office, this assumption may not hold true. Using an experimental design embedded in a nationally representative survey, I test how voters respond to female candidates with ideologies and abortion positions similar and contrary to their own preferences. I find that women, generally, prefer a female candidate, but support for a female candidate among women decreases significantly when she has a contrary ideology or policy position. Whether women prefer descriptive or substantive representation also is conditioned on individual-level characteristics. This study advances our understanding of voters’ responses to female candidates’ varying ideological and issue positions, which is increasingly important as more women run for office. Although women are more likely than men to give female candidates the benefit of the doubt, not just any female candidate will do—she needs to appeal to women on issue and ideological grounds too.

Revisiting Forms of Representation by Critically Examining Men

Research on gender and politics has made use of Pitkin's (1967) distinction between descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation to conceptualize and understand the different facets of women's underrepresentation and misrepresentation. The corresponding overrepresentation of men has seldom been explicitly recognized in this literature. We explore what the critical study of men and masculinities could contribute to the study of different forms of representation. Researching the descriptive overrepresentation of men implies recognizing male dominance and turning our attention from the factors that constrain women from entering politics to the factors that enable and reproduce men's presence. Researching the substantive representation of men also implies investigatinghowmen represent men and identifying whether hegemonic masculinities privilege the representation of some men while neglecting others. Finally, a study of the symbolic representation of men implies identifying and describing the masculine signals and symbols that permeate political life but remain largely invisible because they constitute the political norm. Naming them as “masculine” will facilitate a gendered analysis of political institutions, practices, and discourses that are seldom questioned. We also consider the symbolic representation of men who do not conform to hegemonic masculine ideals and are not represented descriptively.

Representing Whom? U.K. Health Consumer and Patients' Organizations in the Policy Process.

This paper draws on nearly two decades of research on health consumer and patients' organizations (HCPOs) in the United Kingdom. In particular, it addresses questions of representation and legitimacy in the health policy process. HCPOs claim to represent the collective interests of patients and others such as relatives and carers. At times they also make claims to represent the wider public interest. Employing Pitkin's classic typology of formalistic, descriptive, symbolic, and substantive representation, the paper explores how and in what sense HCPOs represent their constituencies. We found that policymakers themselves are less concerned with formal mechanisms adopted by groups and are more concerned with credibility, in particular whether HCPOs carry the confidence of their constituents. While some concerns about legitimacy remain, particularly in relation to funding from commercial interests, we argue that HCPOs bring a unique perspective to the policy process and to focus purely on formalistic representation provides only a partial understanding of their representative role and a constrained view of their collective moral claims.

Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending in Local Governments

One potential consequence of increasing women’s numeric representation is that women elected officials will behave differently than their men counterparts and improve women’s substantive representation. This study examines whether electing women to local offices changes how local government expenditures are allocated in ways that benefit women. Using compositional expenditure data from more than 5,400 Brazilian municipalities over eight years, we find significant differences in the ways men and women mayors allocate government expenditures. Our findings indicate that women mayors spend more on traditionally feminine issues, and less on traditionally masculine issues, relative to men mayors. In regard to specific policy areas, we find that women spend more on women’s issues, including education, health care, and social assistance, and less on masculine issues, including transportation and urban development, relative to men mayors. We further find that women’s legislative representation significantly influences the allocation of expenditures as a larger percentage of women councilors increases spending on traditionally feminine issues, as well as education, health care, and social assistance, relative to other policy issues. These findings indicate that women local elected officials improve women’s substantive representation by allocating a larger percentage of expenditures to issues that have historically and continue to concern women in Brazil.