Political Parties and Gendered Political Representation: A Research Strategy for Assessing the Impact of Institutionalization in Candidate Selection Procedures

Abstract

This article presents the research strategy of two interrelated research projects that both analyze the role of political parties for women´s political representation. Previous research has suggested that an increased institutionalization of political parties’ candidate selection procedures will increase women’s political representation. However, because of the lack of available data on political parties’ internal nomination procedures, there is a shortage on conceptual clarifications as well as on empirical comparisons. With the help of unique data produced by International IDEA covering 176 parties in 64 developing countries, as well as of four comparative case studies, the combined undertaking of the two projects is threefold: First, we conceptually disentangle and concretize the dimensions of institutionalization in candidate selection to allow for a proper operationalization of the concept. Second, we analyze the possible effects of institutionalization, in relation to other party characteristics, on the number of female representatives. Third, we contextually nuance the discussion and examine whether the role of institutionalization in candidate selection is contingent on the different preferences parties are likely to have in different political climates.