Publication: How Development Matters: A Research Note on the Relationship between Development, Democracy, and Women's Political Representation
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Date
2008
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SAGE Publications
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Viterna, Jocelyn, Kathleen M. Fallon, and Jason Beckfield. 2008. "How Development Matters: A Research Note on the Relationship between Development, Democracy, and Women's Political Representation." International Journal of Comparative Sociology 49, no. 6: 455-477.
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Abstract
Most studies find that the substantial cross-national variation in women's legislative representation is not explained by cross-national differences in socioeconomic development. By contrast, this note demonstrates that economic development does matter. Rather than looking for across-the-board general effects, we follow Matland (1998), and analyze developed and developing nations separately. We find that accepted explanations fit rich nations better than poor nations, and obscure the effects of democracy on women's representation in the developing world. We call for new theoretical models that better explain women's political representation within developing nations, and we suggest that democracy should be central to future models.
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Keywords
democracy, development, parliament, political representation, women
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