Selecting women candidates: obstacles to the feminisation of the House of CommonsLOVENDUSKI, JONI; NORRIS, PIPPA
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1989.tb00206.xpmid: N/A
Abstract. Despite concern by the major British political parties to increase the number of women at Westminster, progress has been slow, yielding only just over 5 per cent of women MPs. This article presents the results of an investigation of party selection procedures designed to determine whether selection practices were themselves the explanation for the poor showing of women. The study consisted of interviews with party officials and a survey of the candidates in the 1987 General Election. It was found that selection procedures were in a process of change which included efforts by central leaderships to promote women's candidacies. But local selectorates were not always cooperative. Although women did not appear to be selected in the proportions in which they were coming forward, no evidence of direct discrimination against aspirant women candidates was found. But indirect discrimination may have taken place. Both the way in which the role of a candidate is defined and the qualities selectorates seek produce ideal candidate profiles which may penalise many women. The article concludes that if women are to be better represented at Westminster, parties must go beyond procedural change and the introduction of positive action to a reconsideration of the criteria for choosing candidates.
Changes in the PSI leadership: the national executive committee and its membership (1976–1987)MASSARI, ORESTE
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1989.tb00207.xpmid: N/A
Abstract. This paper deals with the role and composition of the Italian Socialist Party's National Executive Committee during the 1976–1987 period. These years saw the advent, the strengthening and the unchallenged supremacy of Craxi's leadership first within the PSI and then within the Italian political system. While in other political parties the role of the National Executive Committee as a decision‐making body has remained crucial, in the PSI this role seems to have been impaired both by Craxi's extremely personal and strong leadership and by the weakness of the party organization. However, the loss of decision‐making power by the collective leadership was accompanied by an increase in membership, which favoured the rise of new members to leading positions. The social and political characteristics of this new political class are analysed and evaluated through a number of empirical indicators. The results allow a better understanding of the actual changes that occurred in the party as a consequence of the innovations brought about by Craxi's leadership. This, in turn, sheds light on an important section of the Italian ruling class.
Values and partisanship in left‐right orientations: measuring ideologyHUBER, JOHN D.
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1989.tb00209.xpmid: N/A
Abstract. This paper analyzes whether left‐right scales provide an interval measure of citizen issue attitudes that is comparable across eight Western European countries. Two commonly held views of left‐right self‐placement are juxtaposed: (1) the theory that issue attitudes are the primary component of left‐right self‐placement, and (2) the theory that partisanship is the primary component of left‐right self‐placement, which entails that left‐right scales will take on different substantive meanings in countries with different types of party systems. Distance measures and least squares regression show that left‐right scales are generally an appropriate instrument for cross‐national tests of theories that have as an explanatory variable the ideological orientations of voters.
Elite perceptions of mass preferences in The Netherlands; biases in cognitive responsivenessDEKKER, PAUL; ESTER, PETER
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1989.tb00210.xpmid: N/A
Abstract. Several studies have shown dissimilarities between political leaders and voters in terms of political attitudes and policy preferences. Though many explanations have been offered for this phenomenon, the knowledge factor has been overlooked. The basic question of this paper is how knowledgeable politicians are of the political opinions of their voters as well as of the general public. Forty‐six national Dutch politicians were asked to estimate the percentage of the public at large and of their own voters who agree with specific political statements. These estimates were then compared with the actual distribution of opinions. Though using a rather strict criterion it has been found that politicians tend to give inaccurate estimates of the public's support for various political issues. The inaccuracy does not differ between members of the government and members of parliament, but politicians of parties in office appear to perform worse than members of opposition parties. The data do not support the hypothesis about politicians' ability to correctly estimate majority and minority opinions, or to accurately localize their own voters relative to the public at large. Furthermore it is observed that politicians overestimate rather than underestimate differences in opinion between the electorate and their own voters. No difference is found in politicians'estimates of political issues which can or cannot be classified in terms of ‘left’ or ‘right’. In addition, politicians do not judge their voters to be more right‐wing than they actually are. Contrary to our hypothesis, Social‐Democratic politicians are not more likely to show a ‘conservative bias’ in estimating their voters’ preferences compared to politicians from the Christian‐Democratic and Liberal parties. Finally, the relevance of our findings for political sciences as well as some normative consequences are briefly discussed.