Tuesday, April 29, 2014

2 May 2014: Why So Few Women in Politics? Evidence from India

Shamika Ravi
Brookings Institution India Center and Indian School of Business

Abstract:
This paper analyzes women as political candidates in a representative democracy. Using 50 years of assembly elections data at the constituency level from the Indian states, the authors show that women are more likely to contest elections in those constituencies where gender ratio of the electors is less in favor of women. For example, women are more likely to contest elections in backward states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the gender ratio of electors is in favor of men than in socially developed states like Kerala where the gender ratio of electors is more in favor of women. The authors present a citizen candidates model of representative democracy and show that empirical results are consistent with the theoretical predict ions of this model. These results challenge existing policy of random reservation of seats for women.

Date: May 2, 2014
Time: 03:30 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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