Accessing Power in New Democracies

• Published date: 01 June 2014
• Date: 01 June 2014
• Author: Ingrid Bego
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912913509028
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

2014, Vol. 67(2) 347 –360

© 2013 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912913509028

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Article

While much work has been done to address women’s

political representation in the legislative branch, the phe-

nomenon of women gaining access to the executive

branch has attracted much less attention. Only in the

recent years, scholars have tried to fill in the knowledge

gap and elucidate the patterns of women’s appointments

to cabinets, especially outside of the established postin-

dustrial democracies (Escobar-Lemmon and Taylor-

Robinson 2005, 2009; Jalalzai 2004, 2008; Krook and

O’Brien 2012). The concept of representation itself has

been challenged in this past decade in terms of “where,”

“when,” and “how” it takes place (Celis et al. 2008;

Mackay 2008; McBride and Mazur 2010; Weldon 2002),

in turn shifting the attention to cabinet structures as pow-

erful institutions. This new conceptualization of repre-

sentation supports the idea that the increase of women in

cabinet positions presents an opportunity for improving

women’s representation in politics and increasing egali-

tarianism in formal political institutions. After all, repre-

sentation is one of the main concerns in a democratic

system of government.

New democracies in the twenty-first century have pre-

sented an interesting puzzle to explore when it comes to

the appointment of marginalized groups to cabinet posi-

tions. Unlike the existing mature democracies in the

postindustrial world, the new democracies in Central and

Eastern Europe and Latin America have provided a brand

new and a much more efficient path to power for women,

defying the traditional way of entering politics through

the electoral process. Less than 15 percent of female min-

isters in postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe have

previously served as members of Parliament (MPs), sug-

gesting that the legislature is not the main source of sup-

ply when it comes to appointing women to cabinet

positions. In addition, as Figure 1 vividly illustrates, in

the past five years, the growth rate of women ministers in

Central and Eastern Europe is much higher than the

steady and slow growth rate of women in Parliament.

Therefore, assessing legislative patterns of women’s rep-

resentation does not provide an accurate depiction of the

dynamics of cabinet appointments in the new democra-

cies. There is a need to locate women political actors out-

side of Parliament to fully understand their representation

in politics and also to identify the new possibilities of

accessing political power in developing democracies.

Central and Eastern Europe, unlike Western Europe

(Reynolds 1999), is one of the regions that presents sur-

prising evidence when it comes to women’s appointments

to cabinet positions. In 2008, women in Central and

Eastern Europe made up 19 percent of cabinet positions

marking significant growth from 1992 when only 4.5 per-

cent of ministers were female and even from 2000 when

women occupied 8.2 percent of the ministerial posts. In

some countries such as Estonia and Croatia, women have

occupied 33 percent of cabinets in 2002 and 2005, respec-

tively, setting new records for women’s presence in

509028PRQXXX10.1177/1065912913509028Political Research QuarterlyBego

research-article2013

1Hastings College, NE, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ingrid Bego, Hastings College, 710 N. Turner Ave., Hastings, NE

68901, USA.

Email: ibego@hastings.edu

Accessing Power in New Democracies:

The Appointment of Female Ministers in

Postcommunist Europe

Ingrid Bego1

Abstract

This article seeks to improve our understanding of how women are gaining access to political power in third wave

democracies. I extend the study of factors that affect the supply of and demand for female cabinet ministers from

Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe, analyzing twelve new democracies from 1992 to 2008. I find that a

high percentage of women’s enrollment in higher education correlates not only with the high percentage of women

appointed to ministerial positions but also with a higher rate of appointments to prestigious posts.

Keywords

cabinet appointments, gender and the executive, third wave democracies, postcommunist Europe