Varieties of power : women's political representation in Arab parliaments /
"The Middle East and North Africa region continues to have one of the lowest rates of female representation in national legislatures over the past decades. Even as post-Arab Spring governments worked to increase women's participation in politics, the number of women serving in Arab legisla...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Columbia University Press,
2025.
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| Summary: | "The Middle East and North Africa region continues to have one of the lowest rates of female representation in national legislatures over the past decades. Even as post-Arab Spring governments worked to increase women's participation in politics, the number of women serving in Arab legislatures stood at 18 percent in 2021, compared to 40 percent in Nordic countries and 27 percent in Europe. In Varieties of Power , Marwa Shalaby proposes that specific difficulties in an increasingly authoritarian region affect women's political inclusion in Arab countries. She examines the dynamics of female political inclusion in three national parliaments operating under authoritarianism-Morocco, Jordan, and Kuwait-and systematically analyzes variations in women's legislative behavior and priorities across the three cases. Drawing on more than seven years of data collection and fieldwork in the region, Shalaby demonstrates that the structure of procedural rules as well as the degree of institutionalization of party competition play a significant role in promoting, or hampering, women's access to political power under authoritarianism. In Morocco, for instance, robust party competition and strong legislative procedures are correlated with more women's participation in parliament, while the lack of these conditions are correlated with lower women's participation in Jordan and Kuwait; the women in Morocco, subsequently, find it easier to raise questions related to women's issues to the general political body than their peers in nearby authoritarian countries. While institutions matter, Shalaby argues, the internal procedures and the 'content' of these institutions are crucial for explaining the varying levels, and substance, of women's political representation. Contributing new insights in both the study of women in politics and authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa region, Varieties of Power is a nuanced and incisive book"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | pages cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780231562393 (electronic bk.) 023156239X (electronic bk.) |