Competing for New Votes: Mobilization of Women in the Wake of Democratization
How are newly enfranchised groups mobilized? I theorize that new electorates are `harder to mobilize’, which incentivizes politicians to expend resources on the mobilization of most new electorates in fewer, more geographically concentrated, localities. This results in a greater within-country variation in turnout of new electorates and reduces the difference between turnout of new and established electorates in places with the strongest incentives to engage in mobilization efforts. In testing this argument, I analyse fine-grained sex-separated election data after the introduction of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Austria. I find support for my argument. In systems with single member districts, the gender turnout gap closes in the most competitive districts that ignite the strongest incentives to mobilize. In systems with proportional representation, the gender turnout gap closes in the most uncompetitive within-district localities that ignite the strongest incentives to mobilize. These findings have implications for the representation of marginalized interests. If politicians have an incentive to engage newly enfranchised groups to a lesser degree, the groups’ potential to improve their substantive representation upon enfranchisement will be limited.
Date: 12 November 2019, 12:30
Venue: Nuffield College, New Road OX1 1NF
Venue Details: Clay Room
Speaker: Mona Morgan-Collins (University of Durham)
Organising department: Nuffield College
Organisers: David Rueda (Nuffield College), Ezequiel Gonzalez Ocantos (Nuffield College), Andy Eggers (Nuffield College)
Organiser contact email address: maxine.collett@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Nuffield College Political Science Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Maxine Collett