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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam

MONEY TALKS: Gendered Electoral Financing in Democratic and Democratizing States

Alternative title: Kjønnet valgkampfinansiering i demokrati og demokratiserende stater

Awarded: NOK 9.2 mill.

This project on political recruitment studies the effect of funding incentives to promote gender balance in politics. High expenses associated with being elected as a representative in a national assembly is an obstacle to the gender balance in politics. In a number of countries around the world, the authorities or civil society agents have introduced financing measures to promote equal balance. In this project, we have conducted case studies in a number of countries where various forms of gendered electoral financing have been used to either motivate more women to stand for election or provided incentives to political parties to promote more female candidates through public policies. Among other things, the project has researched the effect of financial sanctions for parties non-compliance of statutory gender quota requirements in France, Ireland and Cape Verde. In these cases, we have seen that in combination with other factors, such measures can lead to parties being more willing to promote the candidacies of women. In four other countries, Malawi, the United Kingdom, Ghana and the United States, the project has studied the impact of programs aimed at providing earmarked financial support to female candidates. These studies have shown that although such measures can help motivate more women to stand for elected office, there are several conditions that must be in place for them to succeed. The project also identifies a number of mechanisms that make running for office expensive and when this has gendered consequences. Amongst other, we have studied the effect of political institutions, such as the electoral system and the presence of state funding, and explained why one can have similar development patterns across regions. In addition to focusing on when money matters in politics and why this has gendered effect, the project has also contributed to knowledge about the limits to money power in politics. For instance, results from a survey experiment where we have used animations, show that Malawian voters strongly dislike candidates who try to make themselves more attractive by handing out money to voters and local leaders. On the one hand, we can interpret this as a sign that candidates exaggerate the need for high campaign expenditures to win elections, and that this is good news for less wealthy candidates with less resourceful networks. On the other hand, it can be argued that this is a disadvantage for women because they cannot just distribute money to voters to "catch up" with more experienced men. After all, women are more likely in most countries to be the challenger while men are the incumbent.

Prosjektet har bidratt til å øke kunnskapsutviklingen om hvordan forskjellige former for ulikhet henger sammen og hvor vidt økonomiske insentivordnigner kan bidra til å endre politisk adferd. De involverte i prosjektet har ved hjelp av innhentede data bidratt til å utvikle nye begrep og bidra til økt empirisk kunnskap og teoriutvikling. Mulighet til å arbeide med en tematikk i forksningsfronten har ført til større internasjonal oppmerksomhet igjennom faglige samarbeid og enkelte signatur publikasjoner. Prosjektet har også gitt mulighet til å utvikle nye metoder ved å ta i bruk digitale verktøy for å formidle prosjektresultater (kortfilm) og bruk av animasjoner i eksperiment. Prosjektet har derfor hele tiden hatt formidling i fokus. Medlemmer i prosjektet har blitt konktet av lovgivere og donorer som ønsker innspill på hvordan kjønnet valgkampfinansiering kan videreutvikles.

This project analyzes how various gendered electoral financing schemes affect gender parity in elected office in democratic and democratizing states. Our study aims to contribute to an enhanced understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of financial schemes aimed to advance the recruitment of women in politics, analyzing how seemingly similar strategies are conditioned by different social and political contexts and opportunity structures. This research project analyzes the form, causes and particularly the consequences of gendered electoral financing focusing specifically on how such schemes - separate from or in conjunction with gender quotas, interact with electoral processes and institutions that tend to be gendered. In short, the project will advance a new research frontier on non-quota measures to enhance women`s political representation, taking gendered electoral financing as a point of inquiry. The project develops (1) a typology of financing schemes to establish how gendered electoral financing schemes differ; (2) a cross-national dataset to test the relationship between different schemes and gender parity in elected office and asses the effects of different gendered electoral financing schemes on getting women elected to political offices; (3) a two-paird a analysis including France, the UK, Kenya and Malawi to explore and theorize on to what extent, if any, gendered electoral finance contribute to levelling the playing field between men and women. Within each case critical frame analysis is used to study the problem when it comes to recruiting women as candidates, and what is considered as the solution; (4) an audience study, where a campaign movie made for the purpose of the project, of members of focus groups to capture the relevance of resources in campaigning.

Funding scheme:

FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam