Bringing Diversity to Parliament? Gender, Quotas and Parliamentary Speech

• In Event: Gender, Quotas, and Representation

Abstract

Diversity increases the breadth of topics and positions debated in parliaments. Yet, institutionalist perspectives contend that parliamentary rules allow leaders to reign in diverging MPs. Candidate selection procedures enable leaders to limit the pool of candidates to hand-selected MPs. Consequently, we argue that party-level quotas for historically under-represented groups reduce the impact of MP diversity leading to less distinctive expressed priorities. We hypothesize that women are more likely to speak on compassion-based issues and hold distinctive positions from the party leader, but that the existence of gender quotas moderates this force. Quotas – a potential mechanism for increasing leaders’ candidate selection influence – moderate MPs’ expressed issue-priorities and positions relative to the leader, reducing variation. We assess these expectations using MP-level data on the content of parliamentary speeches from 28 European parliaments (ParlEE). We expect women to speak more about issues such as health care, human rights and the environment and to express more distinctive positions relative to the leader, but that the presence of quotas mitigates differences. The theory and analysis provide compelling evidence for the impact of candidate selection rules on leaders’ influence and contribute more broadly to understanding the link between individuals’ backgrounds, institutional constraints and the representation process.

Authors

• Zachary David Greene, University of Strathclyde

• Maarja Luhiste, Newcastle University

• Christine A Sylvester, University of Strathclyde