Electoral Systems and the Substantive Representation of Marginalized Groups: Evidence from Women’s Issue Bills in South Korea

• Author: Yesola Kweon,Josh M. Ryan
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211028290
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211028290

Political Research Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211028290

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How electoral institutions incentivize substantive repre-

sentation is a crucial question for democratic governance,

particularly for traditionally underrepresented groups.

This article examines the extent to which proportional

representation (PR) and single-member districts (SMDs)

encourage lawmakers to pursue legislation on behalf of

women, a historically marginalized constituency in most

developed democracies. We show that electoral system

conditions the relationship between legislator gender and

the representation of women, affecting the sponsorship

and passage of women’s issue bills introduced by legisla-

tors of both genders.

Theories of legislative institutions suggest that SMDs

encourage representation of the district median voter, result-

ing in lawmakers converging on majority-oriented policy

positions, at both the district and national levels (Ansolabehere

and Jones 2010; Carson et al. 2010). Members elected

through PR, seeking to be responsive to the party organiza-

tion and its leadership, and free from needing to appeal

exclusively to the median, better represent marginalized

groups (Blais and Massicotte 2002; Jones et al. 2002;

Shugart, Valdini, and Suominen 2005). We extend these

theories to the study of gender representation. While previ-

ous examinations of the link between electoral systems and

gender politics have focused exclusively on women or on

specific legislative activities such as bill sponsorship (Caul

Kittelson and Schwindt-Bayer 2012; Höhmann 2020; H. O.

Jeong 2019; M. Jeong and Lee 2020; Y.-I. Lee 2019; Matland

and Studlar 1996; Shim 2021; Thames 2017), our theory and

data allow for a comparison of both bill sponsorship and pas-

sage activities across gender and electoral system. This

approach allows us to understand the conditions in which

electoral systems incentivize not only women but also men to

support women’s issue bills and bring about favorable policy

change.

Using machine learning to classify legislative topic

areas, we develop a new dataset of bill introductions in

the Korean National Assembly from 2004 through 2016

to compare the legislative behavior of women and men

elected under each of the country’s electoral systems.

1028290PRQXXX10.1177/10659129211028290Political Research QuarterlyKweon and Ryan

research-article2021

1 Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, Sungkyunkwan

University, Seoul, South Korea

2Utah State University, Logan, USA

Corresponding Author:

Josh M. Ryan, Department of Political Science, Utah State University,

0725 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322, USA.

Email: josh.ryan@usu.edu

Electoral Systems and the Substantive

Representation of Marginalized

Groups: Evidence from Women’s

Issue Bills in South Korea

Yesola Kweon1 and Josh M. Ryan2

Abstract

How do electoral rules shape the substantive representation of traditionally underrepresented groups? Using an

original dataset of introduced and passed bills in the Korean National Assembly, which has both single-member

districts and proportional representation, we examine the extent to which institutions condition the relationship

between lawmaker gender and the substantive representation of women. While women lawmakers engage in higher

levels of substantive representation of women, proportional representation allows both women and men to introduce

more women’s issue bills than their counterparts elected through single-member districts. Furthermore, legislators

elected through proportional representation are more effective at achieving passage of women’s issue legislation

when compared with those elected in single-member districts, and this effect is especially pronounced for men. Our

findings show that electoral systems matter for the representation of marginalized groups and that proportional

representation systems allow both female and male politicians to increase their substantive representation of women.

Keywords

electoral rules, single-member representation, proportional representation, women’s representation, legislative

productivity, comparative institutions

2022, Vol. 75(4) 1065–1078

Article