Irish elections & gender quotas: how to increase women’s representation

With a general election in the Republic of Ireland imminent, gender quotas have already doubled the proportion of women candidates relative to the 2011 general election. In most cases the implementation of quotas at constituency level has been straightforward. However, problems have arisen largely due to ‘local’ versus ‘central’ conflict, writes Claire McGing. Here she explores how the tensions between gender quotas (system democracy) and decentralised selections (party democracy) might be managed.