2025/02/02 by William Cross, William P. Cross, Scott Pruysers +2
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00344893.2025.2455097
Political parties are complex and multifaceted organisations that are comprised of several different ‘faces’ (party on the ground, public office, central office), each having varying competencies, priorities, and influence. This stratarchical nature of contemporary parties can result in internal inconsistencies, especially when decision-making authority over a particular matter is shared between different faces. Drawing on a unique survey of Canadian constituency association presidents, we consider the extent to which the party on the ground prioritises gender when identifying and selecting its local candidate. While the party in the centre often emphasises the need to recruit and nominate more women, the results of our survey indicate that the party on the ground tends to prioritise an entirely different set of candidate qualities. However, local associations that do prioritise candidate gender tend to produce better representational outcomes in the form of more women contesting the nomination. The disconnect between central and local party priorities with regards to the importance of descriptive representation highlights the potential for internal tension and inconsistencies within parties, and provides new insight into why parties often fail to achieve their publicly stated goals when it comes to increasing diversity.