配额制:对妇女平等参政的快速跟进

概论 尽管十分具有争议性,但选举的性别配额制正在世界上主要地区被越来越多的国家所引入.最近几年中,大约有40个国家已经通过宪法修正案或选举法,在议会选举中引入了性别配额制.在超过50个国家中,在要求参选国家议会的各政党候选人中妇女所占最低人数的配额现在已在主要政党的纲领中出现.这一发展挑战了先前关于妇女参政的各种不同的理论.     

Quotas as a ‘fast track’ to equal representation for women

Recent years have witnessed the rapid diffusion of electoral gender quotas. Today, about fourty countries around the world have introduced gender quotas for parliamentary elections, either by constitutional amendment or electoral law. Also, quotas for public election have been laid down in major political parties' statutes in more than fifty countries. This article, which is based on the first worldwide overview of the use of quotas, presents general trends in quota adoption. It identifies two discourses: the incremental track versus the fast track to women's parliamentary representation, and argues that the Scandinavian countries – which represent the incremental track – may no longer be a valid model for ways to improve women's representation. The article also analyses the implementation process, and concludes that, without specifications of quota provisions that match the electoral system in question, and rules about the rank order of candidates as well as sanctions for non-compliance, quota provisions may be merely symbolic.