Comments on: women in politics

By: genderstan

genderstan — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:58:34 +0000

Read through a non-US situation with similar context. genderstan.wordpress.com
We are struggling with getting women to be in parliament.

By: stixzz

stixzz — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:20:19 +0000

Thanks TG. I’m just a working class kid (well stretching the kid thing at 28) trying to make it in academia, so id say its more my “chip on the shoulder” standpoint rather than something more analytically substantive.

By: Red Jenny

Red Jenny — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:17:09 +0000

I believe electoral reform is crucial to improving the representation of minority groups. Interestingly, this is something we are working on for our provincial government in Ontario. There was a citizens panel studying different systems, and they concluded that, for our particular situation, MMP was the best form. It will go to referendum so we'll see, but it's a very exciting possibility.

By: Disgusted Beyond Belief

Disgusted Beyond Belief — Sun, 27 May 2007 02:46:17 +0000

Yeah, it would be nice if instead of a winner take all, you could rank the candidates, and so if your first choice doesn’t fetch a majority, your second choice gets your vote, and so on down the line. It would give third-party candidates a chance.

By: liberallatte

liberallatte — Sat, 26 May 2007 13:22:38 +0000

It may be bit off-topic, but I’d like to emphasise that the election system plays a crucial part in the distribution of political power. The First Past the Post (FPP) system, cherished by the Anglo-Saxon tradition, always systematically disadvantages and marginalises minorities. In the USA (except Vermont) practically no “third” party can win a seat in the Federal Congress, and seats gained by decent centre-left parties like the New Democratic Party and Lib Dems are about the half of what they would have got under the Proportional Representation (PR), Green Parties are successful in many countries (mainly in the European Continent) with PR system, but not in any FPP country.

None of the 17 countries with more than 30% female representation in Parliament has the FPP system. Some of these countries adopt a quota system, which technically can’t be done under the FPP. Giving all the power to a single winner in an electorate (who represents the majority) is a blatant disregard for minority’s viewpoints, so I don’t regard the FPP system as true democracy.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:11:39 +0000

Geo: I’m glad you mentioned Oprah to point out how she is the exception rather than the norm. I have heard people try to use her wealth and popularity as an example to claim that America is not racist. But it is important to think about numbers. As soon as you compare percentages of people who have that kind of wealth, the disproportionality (is that a word?) is apparent.

I think the same thing goes for Barack Obama and his success. DBB mentioned that we might have to re-evaluate our conclusions about racism if we have a Black president and Black cabinet members in government, but this victory at the executive level would by no means suddenly reverse the power structure of the country or overthrow institutionalized racism. I think having African Americans in power would definitely be a wonderful start toward boosting morale, and that those individuals in power would hopefully be proponents of legislation and programs that would make positive changes, but there’s no such thing as an overnight change when it comes to racism.