Political exclusion 3 in 1: the case of Roma women in Romania

If someone wondered whether mainstream political parties in Romania nominated any Roma male candidates in the 2016 local elections, the answer is yes, a few. However, if someone wondered whether the same mainstream parties put forth any Roma women candidates, then the answer is almost none. Most academic literature examining the political representation of the Roma approach this issue by focusing strictly on Roma leaders and Roma organizations; conversely, much less attention is paid to how mainstream parties choose to represent minorities. We know therefore very little about whether and how these parties nominate minority candidates on their lists in elections; we know even less about the extent to which Roma women are included in the nomination process. This presentation aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the nomination process concerning Roma candidates on mainstream party lists by adopting a supply side approach that covers party variables. The study focuses on the 2016 local elections in Romania and uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, namely an original data set that covers 289 party lists from 77 localities with a minimum Roma population of 1% from three different counties (Galati, Iasi and Salaj) as well as 39 interviews with local party leaders, belonging to the ALDE, the PMP, the PNL, the PSD and the UNPR. The results of the analysis indicate that the exclusion of Roma women from political life is motivated by an intersection of factors such as ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background. Mainstream political parties, whose nomination process is informal, with vague and idiosyncratic rules, which allow the interference of personal norms, attitudes and beliefs of the party leaders, discriminate against Roma candidates. Roma ethnicity is stereotyped by local party leaders as an all-in-one label of this ethnic group as inferior and without culture. The poor socio-economic background of many Roma does not help either. The driving mechanism is the informal control and manipulation that incumbent local political parties can exert over Roma voters, who because of their socio-economic background , become loyal to these parties either through the distribution of social benefits, vote buying, or even threats of losing welfare benefits. Once Roma votes are secured in this way, Roma are automatically disregarded as potential candidates. Finally, it is the masculinized environment of the local politics where access to the electoral arena is done based on notoriety and power, electoral valence becoming a male-specific characteristic.