CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | O'Sullivan, Laura |
|---|---|
| Title | The PR-STV Electoral System and the Participation of Women in National Legislatures: Ireland, Malta, and Australia |
| Summary | Electoral systems have the capacity to shape the composition of national legislatures. The Proportional Representation Single Transferable Vote (PR-STV) electoral system has been purported to be one of the most proportional electoral systems available. However, two of the three countries that utilise this electoral system for national elections, Ireland and Malta, have failed to achieve anything close to gender parity in their national legislatures. Australia, the third country to utilise PR-STV, has successfully achieved gender parity. This thesis aims to investigate the reasoning behind this by looking at the electoral design factors and non-electoral design factors that influence the application of this electoral system in Ireland, Malta, and Australia. Design factors include gender quotas, district magnitude, and candidate selection, whilst non-design factors include court decision-making, the role of women in society, local government, and incumbency. The key finding of this thesis is that a combination of electoral design and non-electoral design factors contribute to the failure in achieving gender parity. The introduction of gender quotas in Ireland and Malta has begun to amend this, however, these quotas are also under threat in the courts. Ultimately, no singular answer can be provided for the success of women in politics in Australia and the lack of success seen in Ireland and Malta. It is a combination of factors that, depending on the context, play varying roles. |
| Supervisor | Möschel, Mathias |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/osullivan_laura.pdf |
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