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Week 5: Minority Representation
Week 5: Minority Representation
Htun
: Diff remedies for underrepresentation: Reservation for women (crosscutting), quota for ethnicity (coinciding)
Quotas require a minimum number of candidates fielded by a party for election to be from a certain group --> suitable for groups that crosscut partisan divisions --> gender
Does not alter the existing political system, just allows certain grps a chance to be elected while staying within their existing parties. Promotes assimilation into existing political institutions
Gender crosscuts: women in many political parties, women have diff policy preferences, but have a common interest in being present during policy making
Women united in only temporary alliances to promote female presence in politics. May be a temporary measure if discrimination is no longer present
E.g . France: must have equal number of males and females in party lists
May harm coinciding groups if mainstream parties start competing for grp leaders to fulfill quota
Reservations are seats reserved in parliament for certain grps --> suitable for grps that coincide with partisan divisions --> ethnicity
Creates electoral incentives to create new political parties, guarantees the grps a share of the power, independent from existing political parties if need be.
Groups demanding reservations do not want to be part of the mainstream parties
E.g India: quotas for Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, untouchables
Usually part of consensus & consociational polities
Crosscut: members of this group belong in many political parties
Coincide: members of this group concentrate in 1 party, 1 type of organisation, or no party at all
Phillips
: Politics of Presence vs Ideas
Politics of Ideas: the argument that political loyalties develop around policy preferences rather than people
Politics of presence: the argument that groups who have been historically marginalised should now be included politically
Either one is not a solution on its own. The best way to conceive a system of representation is a combination of the 2.
Mansbridge:
Contingent arguments for Descriptive representation
DR acceptable under 4 circumstances
Uncrystallised interests: interests that have not been focused on during GE, not on the public agenda for long
Mistrust: due to historical reasons
Enhance substantive representation
DR helps to promote vertical communication between the rep and the citizen, as citizens feel more comfortable talking to someone they perceive as having the same experience
As DR are seen to have similar shared experiences with the grp they represent, in cases of unpredictable issues, it is more likely for them to know the interests of the rest of the group and react the same way.
Past historical subordination where "ability to rule" was questioned
Having PR of the discriminated groups enhance de facto legitimacy by making the members feel as though they were present in the policy making process
Low de facto legtimacy
Enhance non-substantive representation
Create new social meaning: this group is no longer subordinated, they are now fit to rule
Arguments against DR
Lesser talents get elected <-> in this case we need to do selective DR not microcosmic DR
DR may not act in the interests of the group they claim to represent
How to implement DR? 2 functions of democracy
Deliberative function
Where policies aim to create commonality, create something that is good for the whole polity
Need DR here because we need input from all groups that may provide insight into the issue. Vicarious protrayal of experience is not enough
Aggregative function
Creating policies when there are fundamentally conflicting interests
DR not as required here. Representatives cannot ignore the interests of a segment of their constituents in these issues, if not there may be consequences during re-election
Yiftachael
: Ethnic relations and democratic stability: Lebanon, Cyprus, Israel
4 state models to manage diverse ethnic relations
Consociationalism: segmental autonomy, grand coalition (elite power sharing), veto power, proportionality
Consensus: assimilates and integrates various groups into a homogenous whole
Control: majority group control minority group. a)political surveillance, b)economic dependence, c) territorial containment
Partition: When groups insist on political autonomy and violence cannot be avoided another way, a state is physically divided
4 conclusions
Consociationalism cannot be reversed without serious threats to political stability i.e Lebanon and Cyprus --> Consociationalism to control
Proportionality is impt: reservations in parliament must be proportional to population
Importance of spatial relations: federalism is possible if ethnic groups are geographically concentrated, if grps are mixed, instability is more likely
Need to combine theories of state and spatial relations: if a national majority is a regional minority --> they may feel threatened and try to control the minority