Abstract
In this chapter, we outline the main political system features of Germany and Austria and explore their impact on gender equality and quota implementation on national and Länder levels. In both countries, the multi-party system invites the contagion of gender equality measures from the political left to the center. German party federalism allowed women’s activists to push for the institutionalization of women’s policy agencies and for quotas from their Land-level bases. Austrian party federalism, in contrast, exhibited corporatist, informal, and consensual decision-making on the national level that in turn stifled subnational equality activism. Delineating the origins of quota policies within respective political systems allows us to understand where and how these policies gained visibility and recognition over time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Richtlinienkompetenz.
- 3.
The CSU only participates in elections in Bavaria and not in any other Bundesland. Vice versa, the CDU does not run in Bavarian elections but in all other Bundesländer. This applies also to federal elections, where the two parties form one parliamentary caucus. As we reflect primarily on the discourse and actions in the CDU, we will label data and other information from the joint caucus also as CDU-driven.
- 4.
German: Wirtschaftskammer and Industriellenvereinigung.
- 5.
The Chambers for Workers and Employees represent Austrian employees. Membership is compulsory and fees are 0.5% of a member’s gross salary.
- 6.
Formally: Verband der Unabhängigen.
- 7.
German: Kammern für Arbeiter und Angestellte.
- 8.
Until the late 1980s, the FPÖ was a small niche party promoting German nationalism as its main ideology.
- 9.
Gemeinsame Konferenz der Gleichstellungs- und Frauenministerinnen und -minister, -senatorinnen und -senatoren der Länder GFMK.
- 10.
https://www.frauenbeauftragte.org/die-bag/wer-wir-sind. Accessed January 4, 2019.
- 11.
Austria has a tenth of the population of Germany.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ahrens, P., Chmilewski, K., Lang, S., Sauer, B. (2020). Contextualizing Quotas: The Political Systems of Germany and Austria. In: Gender Equality in Politics. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34895-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34895-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34894-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-34895-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)