New global website on electoral gender quotas

[Chi]

Kaptam - továbbitom, érdekesnek tartottam ugyanis :-)
Jó hétvégét mindenkinek - ida ***


> Electoral Gender Quotas - Back again on the Political Agenda
> New global website on electoral gender quotas
> This new website - www.quotaproject.org - gives the first overview of the
> use of quotas for women in elections around the world. The website reveals
> that the use of electoral gender quotas is much more widespread in the
world
> today than many people would expect. An increasing number of countries are
> in these very years introducing some kind of gender quota for public
> elections. In South East Asia people even speak about a "quota fever". In
> Latin America, 12 countries now have quota provisions in their
constitution
> or in the electoral law.
> This website is a result of a co-operation between International IDEA
> (www.idea.int) and the research project: "Quotas - a Key to Equality? An
> International Comparison of the Use of Electoral Quotas to obtain Equal
> Political Citizenship for Women, led by Drude Dahlerup, Dept. of Political
> Science, Stockholm University (http://www.statsvet.su.se).
> It is hoped that this website will prove useful for all agencies and
> organisations that work to promote a gender balance in political life. The
> website is interactive, and you are invited to send your comments and
> updated information.
> A qualitative jump
> Today women constitute 15 per cent of the members of all parliaments of
the
> world. The top rank is held  by women in the parliament of Sweden: 45.3%,
> while the lowest is no women at all like in Bahrain. Given the slow speed
by
> which the number of women in politics is growing, everywhere one hear a
call
> for more efficient methods reach a gender balance in the political
> institutions. Quotas present one such mechanism. The introduction of a
quota
> system for women represents a qualitative jump into a policy of exact
goals
> and means. Because of its relative efficiency, the hope for dramatic
> increase in women's representation by using this system is strong.
> At the same time quotas raise serious questions and, in some cases, strong
> resistance.
>
> What are quotas?
> What are quotas and in what way can quotas contribute to the political
> empowerment of women?
> Some quota systems are, however, constructed as gender-neutral, which
means
> that they aim at correcting the under-representation of both women and men
> or at any rate they set up a maximum for both sexes. In this case, the
> requirement may be that neither gender should occupy more than 60 per cent
> and no less that 40 per cent of the seats.
> A fifty-fifty quota is, in its nature, gender neutral, and it sets a
maximum
> also for women's representation, which a minimum requirement for women in
> fact does not.
> "Double quota" or "rank ordering quotas regulations" is used about a quota
> system  that not only requires a certain percentage of women on the
> electoral list, but also demands a gender balanced rank order on the
lists -
> in order to prevent women candidates just being placed on the bottom of
the
> list with few chances to be elected. Argentina, Belgium and Costa Rica are
> examples of countries with legal requirement for double quotas.
>
> Different Quota Systems
> There are several different sources for quotas systems. The most important
> types are the following:
> * Constitutional Quota for National Parliament: These are quota provisions
> that are mandated in the constitution of the country. Examples are Burkina
> Faso, Nepal, the Philippines and Uganda.
> * Election Law Quota or Regulation for National Parliament: These are
quotas
> that are provided for in the national legislation or regulations of the
> country. Legislative quotas are widely used in Latin America as well as
for
> instance in Belgium, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Sudan.
> * Political Party Quota for Electoral Candidates: These are rules set by
> political parties to include a certain percentage of women as election
> candidates. There might also be quotas for internal party structures, but
> these are not included in this website. In some countries many among the
> political parties apply some type of quotas, e.g. Argentina, Bolivia,
> Ecuador, Germany, Norway, Italy and Sweden. But in many other countries
only
> one or two parties have decided to use quotas. However, if the leading
party
> in a country uses quotas, like ANC in South Africa, that may have a
> substantial effect on the overall representation of women. Yet, most
> political parties in the world do not apply any quota system at all.
>
> Other Types
> In addition to this tri-partite division, the website has added a further
> quota type:
> Constitutional or Legislative Quota for Sub-National Government: These are
> quotas that are provided for in the constitution or legislation that
require
> or set targets for women to constitute a certain percentage of candidates
at
> sub-national government level (including local, district or
state/provincial
> levels). Examples are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, France and South
Africa.
> Quotas work differently under different electoral systems. Quotas are most
> easily introduced in PR systems and other multi-list systems. Also several
> majority systems have, however, introduced quota provisions as this
website
> shows.  But even in a PR-system, small parties and parties in small
> constituencies have difficulties implementing quotas without controversial
> central interference in the usual prerogatives of the local party
> organisation to select their own candidates.
>