Replication Data for Electoral Rules, Women's Representation and the Qualification of Politicians

Proportional electoral rules are associated with more substantial women's representation than majoritarian ones. To provide causal evidence that electoral rules affect women's representation and the qualification of politicians, we collect panel data on the universe of Italian politicians from all levels of government over the period 1987-2013 and analyse an Italian reform which, in 2005, changed the electoral rule for national elections from (mostly) majoritarian to proportional, but did not affect subnational level elections. We find that this reform increased the number of women elected by 5%, while not decreasing the overall qualification levels of politicians, measured by the level of education and political experience. We provide evidence that the highest qualification women are not elected and that the overall qualification of elected politicians could have increased (rather than remain constant) if the best women candidates had been elected.

相较于多数制选举规则，比例代表制选举规则与更高水平的女性政治代表比例存在显著关联。为论证选举规则对女性政治代表比例及政客任职资质的因果效应，本研究收集了1987年至2013年间意大利各级政府全体政界人士的面板数据，并针对2005年意大利的一项选举改革展开实证分析。该改革将全国性选举的规则从（大体上）多数制调整为比例代表制，但未波及地方层级的选举规则。研究发现，该项改革使当选女性的人数提升了5%，且并未降低以教育水平与从政经历为衡量指标的政客整体任职资质。我们还提供证据表明，资质最优的女性候选人并未成功当选；若顶尖女性候选人能够顺利当选，当选政客的整体资质本可进一步提升（而非维持原有水平）。