Resisting Democratization? Gender Quota Implementation in East and South-European Countries

Abstract

The aim of this roundtable is to assess different modes of gender quota implementation as a form of democratization. We will analyze and debate indicators for successfully implementing quotas and identify actors and strategies for resistance against gender quotas. The rather “young” post state-socialist democracies of Croatia, Poland, and Slovenia, which introduced legislative gender quotas between 2008 and 2011, will be contrasted with an “old” democracies, Italy and Portugal, which introduced legislative as well as party quotas (on municipal level) at the beginning of the new millennium. The outcome in all four cases is ambivalent, as in none of the parliaments the stipulated gender quotas are fulfilled. The roundtable explores the reasons for these similar results. The roundtable’s perspectives are grounded in the GEPP project on “Gender Equality Policy in Practice”, which focuses on the post-adoption stage of a policy, law or regulation. We ask our roundtable participants to assess how quota policies are implemented and in this process made effective or derailed in parties, administrative processes, and electoral decision-making bodies. Panelists with highlight actors and factors that impede the successful implementation of legislative quotas, such as institutional (e.g., the interplay of the electoral system with quota regulations), political (e.g., party strategies) and cultural factors (e.g., gender images). The roundtable will also address the impact of state-socialist legacies in resisting or spurring quota implementation as well as the challenge of right-wing actors and democratic backsliding for gender equality in politics

Title	Details
Gender Quotas in Croatia: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?	View Paper Details
Implementing Gender Quotas in Portugal – A Success Story?	View Paper Details
Gender quota and local political parties: varieties of implementation in Italy.	View Paper Details
Slovenia: Implementing gender quotas and their success after 20 years	View Paper Details
The lessons from the implementation of gender quotas in Polish parliamentary elections	View Paper Details