Abstract
Set in a politics of presence framework, this introductory chapter of the book highlights the importance of having women proportionally represented in politics. It develops the concepts of representation, in both its descriptive and substantive forms and highlights aspects of the extant literature which argue that it is important to have democratic legislatures that are reflective of the wider society. Arguments for the increased political representation of women are often based on the assumption that achieving a ‘politics of presence’ is essential for democracies, because ‘minority’ groups need people from within the group to speak on their behalf. Women’s descriptive representation in parliament is important, but it becomes purely symbolic if it does not bring about outcomes that reflect the interests of conventionally underrepresented groups. Thus efforts to attain a more proportional representation of women should ensure both quantity and quality—a linking of numerical representation to actions and outcomes.
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- 1.
The last election under FPTP was held in 1993.
- 2.
MMP in New Zealand gives voters two votes during a general election: an electorate vote which determines the local representative for that electorate, and a party vote which determines the number of seats each party is entitled to. “Electorate” is the New Zealand terminology for candidates in a single-member district. In other countries, the word “electorate” is used to mean the group of people that are entitled to vote in an election. The system is designed so that each party’s share of MPs is proportional to its share of the party votes cast for all parties winning seats.
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Johnson-Myers, TA. (2017). Introduction. In: The Mixed Member Proportional System: Providing Greater Representation for Women?. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44314-0_1
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