Effective Quotas, Relative Party Magnitude, and the Success of Female Candidates

Abstract

The extraordinary success of gender quotas in the 1998 Peruvian municipal elections defies conventional wisdom in electoral studies. This article evaluates several institutional variables that are prominently featured in the literature and several others that were “discovered” in Peru, using pooled ordinary least squares regression models and original data sets. Two of the newly discovered variables—effective quotas and seats guaranteed by the effective quota and the relative magnitude of the largest party—were the most important determinants of female electoral success at the provincial level and in districts outside Lima, whereas collective action stimulated by quota legislation made a difference in the capital. In contrast, district magnitude—widely considered to be the most important variable in party-list systems—had no impact. The article extends its principal findings beyond Peru, argues that quotas can follow diverging logics in different electoral systems, and suggests directions for future research.