Das Potenzial offener Listen für die Wahl von Frauen zum Bundestag. Ergebnisse eines Survey-Experiments

Rudolph, Lukas; Daubler, Thomas und Menzner, Jan (2022): Das Potenzial offener Listen für die Wahl von Frauen zum Bundestag. Ergebnisse eines Survey-Experiments. In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Bd. 63, Nr. 3: S. 441-468

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in the German parliament (Bundestag), especially in parties in and to the right of the political center. Gender quotas are frequently discussed as a remedy, but they infringe on the liberties of parties, candidates, and voters. In contrast, open lists receive little attention, although they would avoid these constitutional issues. Therefore, we examine how many German voters - overall and by party - would choose female candidates from open lists. Theoretically, we expect that female voters in particular, voters of left-leaning parties, and citizens for whom gender equality is a salient topic would support female politicians. We also expect that voters would tend to even out lists that were characterized by gender imbalance. Our research design utilized an online survey-embedded experiment (N = 2640) with a quota-representative sample of eligible voters. Participants chose between lists of the parties represented in parliament, with four fictitious candidates each. The share of women (25 to 75 %) and the list type (closed vs open) were randomized. We find that both female and male voters consider the sex of the candidate, in line with the theoretical expectations. Our results suggest that female candidates would hardly be discriminated against overall, with some exceptions in specific subgroups (male voters of the Free Democratic Party, female voters of the Alternative for Germany). This article shows that open lists enable citizens to cast preference votes in support of gender equality and that this opportunity is indeed seized. Across parties, voters also level out unequal lists. Therefore, the electoral reform debate should pay more attention to the potential of open lists.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Sozialwissenschaften > Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politikwissenschaft
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 320 Politik
• ISSN: 0032-3470
• Sprache: Deutsch
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 491502892