Quota Adoption and Reform Over Time, or QAROT, is the first longitudinal dataset with information about the adoption, implementation, and reform of national gender quotas across the world. National gender quotas regulate (s)election to national legislatures through constitutional provisions or national laws that require some share of general election candidates or legislators to be women. The dataset includes new measures of quota design, quota thresholds, placement mandates, sanctions for non-compliance, and quota effectiveness. The authors also create a single-variable measure of the presence of an effective quota to be used by comparative politics researchers to control for this powerful institutional feature.
Last updated by source: 2017-08-16
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Hughes et al.,
2017)
(Hughes et al.,
2019)
Dummy variable on whether the country has adopted a gender quota as part of its constitution or secondary law. Coded ‘1’ beginning in the year a quota is introduced in the constitution or secondary law and in all subsequent years unless the quota is overturned or withdrawn. Coded for all years.
More about this variableDummy variable for effective gender quota is coded 1 if a county has a quota that reaches a 10 percent de facto threshold for either candidate or reserved seat quotas. Further, candidate quotas are only coded as effective if they have strong sanctions for noncompliance and/or have strong placement mandates. Reserved seats are only coded as effective if they have a legal mechanism specified to fill the reserved seats. This variable indicates a minimally functioning quota that can be included in a wide range of models to control for an important structural feature of political competition. Coded only for country-years where a quota was present.
More about this variableDummy variable on whether a country has implemented a gender quota in an election. Coded ‘1’ beginning in the year a quota has been implemented in an election -- whether or not the law was followed -- and in all subsequent years unless the quota is overturned or withdrawn. Coded for all years.
More about this variableDummy variable on whether a candidate quota includes placement mandates. Coded only for country-years where a quota was present.
More about this variablePlacement mandates as coded “strong” if they specify an order that meets or exceeds the threshold set by the quota. For example, if a quota with a 30% threshold requires that women are on every third position on a party list (33%), the placement mandate would be coded strong. Alternatively, placement mandates are coded “weak” if they are not specific (e.g., “place in winnable positions”) or require a lower share of women than the legislated threshold (e.g., every 10 candidates for a 15% quota). Coded only for country-years where a quota with placement mandates was present.
More about this variableDummy variable on whether a candidate quota includes a sanction for noncompliance. Coded only for country-years where a quota was present.
More about this variableSanctions are coded “strong” only if parties are stopped from participating in the election if they do not comply with the quota rules. If parties are fined or lose state funding, sanctions are coded as “weak.” Coded only for country-years where a quota with sanctions for noncompliance was present.
More about this variableThe product of the percent of legislative seats to which the quota applies and the legislative threshold stipulated by the quota creates the de facto threshold. Valued between 0-100, as the percent of seats.
More about this variableType of gender quota. ‘seats’ denotes a national quota that reserves a certain percentage of seats in the legislature for women. ‘candidate’ denotes a national gender quota that requires all parties to field a certain percentage of female candidates or nominees. ‘both’ denotes hybrid quotas that use a mix of both types. Coded only for country-years where a quota was present.
More about this variable