Why Lebanon? The Puzzle and Pool of Women in Party Politics

Abstract

Political parties assume a major role as gatekeepers and main vehicles for women’s political advancement. They are often blamed for the flagrant gender imbalances in female parliamentary representation and their dismal political profiles. By placing Lebanon in comparative perspective, for the remainder of this book, I address concerns voiced by Donno and Russett (2004) who called for more theory and research rooted in focused case studies. The advantages of a single case study in establishing causality and not mere association have been emphasized by researchers including Kalyvas, himself a staunch supporter of multiple cases (1996: 14). A focused case study has the advantages of investigating in depth a phenomenon within a controlled sociopolitical environment, while holding constant variables that might influence the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. More specifically, a single case study can isolate the influence of political parties, the independent variable, functioning within one society, on women’s leadership, the dependent variable, while holding constant the country’s development level, political regime, and electoral system. Hence, one important advantage is the feasibility of examining social dynamics within one country, which is not plausible in multicountry studies.