Executive Politics in the Comparative Context

Session Submission Type: Virtual Created Panel

Session Description

The papers in this panel expand our understanding of executive politics in various comparative context. Taylor-Robinson and Pignataro ask a central question in the dynamics of gender and executive leadership—Do female and male cabinet ministers do their job differently?—and offer a theory on the conditions under which cabinet secretaries can be expected to expand representation. Taylor-Robinson and Pignataro test their theoretical framework with data from presidential cabinets in the US and Costa Rica. Huidobro examines how gender affects women’s appointment to cabinets and presents the results of a conjoint experiment from a survey of 979 Spanish mayors. Huidobro finds that gender, having children, and stereotypes influence political appointment and advancement and contributes to our understanding of the effects of intraparty leadership selection mechanisms and party leaders’ motivations and incentives of appointing women on their teams. Tap and Gherghina examine relations between presidents and their former political parties, focusing on two Romanian presidents between 2004 and 2020. Employing a qualitative research design and process tracing, Tap and Gherghina show how country presidents use their informal powers to influence the policy position and electoral performance of their former parties. Noting that while cabinet ministers have significant agenda setting power, they choose to exercise their influences in various ways, Shpaizman asks why some ministers are more successful than others in translating their agenda into policy. Leveraging data from Israeli cabinet ministries from 1981 through 2020, Shpaizman finds that political experience and previous familiarity with the subject matter increase the ministers’ likelihood of changing the policy.

Sub Unit

• Division 23: Presidents and Executive Politics

Cosponsor

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Do Female and Male Cabinet Ministers Do Their Job Differently? - Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson, Texas A&M University; Adrián Pignataro, University of Costa Rica/Universidad de Costa Rica

• Gender and Political Selection: How Do Leaders Appoint Their Teams? - Alba Huidobro, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Country Presidents and their Former Political Parties in Romania - Paul Tap; Sergiu Gherghina, University of Glasgow

• Cabinet Ministers: From Agenda Setting to Policy Making - Ilana Shpaizman, Bar Ilan University

Chair

• Lilly J. Goren Carroll University

Discussants

• Farida Jalalzai Virginia Tech

• Lilly J. Goren Carroll University