Public Support for Increasing Women and Māori MPs in New Zealand

• In Event: 2131 - Race, Sexuality, and Gender in Politics

Abstract

Most democracies around the globe fail to provide equal representation and tend to have an over-representation of men from upper-class racial/ethnic groups in society. Among the pressures toward great equality, we investigate public support for increasing the number of women and indigenous Māori MPs in the New Zealand Parliament, both in general and through specific mechanisms. We offer three explanations for such support: descriptive (group identity), substantive (issue alignment), and symbolic (policies aiming at economic equality and social inclusion). Using data from the 2014 New Zealand Election Study, we find that shared identity matters for all measures of increased representation, but the effect is particularly strong in explaining Māori support increasing the number of Māori MPs in general and for reserved seats for Māori. Substantive concerns matter most for those supporting Māori MPs, as measured by support for keeping the Treaty of Waitangi in law. Support for increasing women MPs is driven most strongly by symbolic concerns (i.e., government social spending and effort to reduce income differences). Overall, respondents favor keeping the current number of reserved seats to maintain Māori MP representation, whereas informal (rather than gender quota) efforts are preferred for increasing the number of women MPs.

Authors

• Catherine I. Bolzendahl, University of California, Irvine

• Hilde Roza Coffé, Utrecht University