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Political Reforms: Quotas in the Legislature
Why have quotas in the legislatures? such as:
gender
race
language
demographic groups, etc
ethnic minorities
A basic premise of representative democracy is that all those subject to policy should have a voice in its making. The inclusion of all parties in a nation should be present.
This involves systematic change by changing rules who can be the elective candidate by changing the set of eligible people.
Tradeoff between what is fair and what is efficient (Pareto Efficient)
Don't always turn out as expected, which revolves around implementation issues
However, policies enacted by electorally accountable governments often fail to reflect the interest of disadvantaged minorities
The Role of History - explains how things are, culturally, economically, institutionally
Many countries have experimented with mandates which seek to increase minority representation in the political process. India in the 1950s, South Africa in the 1990s.
Political Quotas: A Specific Context
The Indian Setting
The Role of History: the centuries old caste system
Caste System: form of social hierarchy
Hierarchical, denied (basic) rights to some
Education, assets, land-holdings, "voice" in society
1950's India put in place wide-ranging affirmative action policies, part of it was quotas in the legislature.
There were 10 or so states, each state had to follow the quota sustem.
Political Quotas in India: Pande (2003)
Central government and state governments required to adhere to quota system of including the ethnic minority.
Their paper focused on state legislature, and whether including them had any affect of the outcome on policy.
Prior to every state election, specified jurisdictions are declared reserved for disadvantaged castes and for tribes. Important to understand why and how certain constituencies were chosen."Only those from that minority can run". Therefore, only members of the group which benefit from reservation can stand for election. However, the entire electorate votes over the set of candidates.
Panda (2003): Quotas in Indian States
The idea is that legislative capture by non-minority individuals adversely affects the policy interest of minority groups. Therefore, it seemed to be serving the poor purpose.
Pande exploits the institutional features of political reservation to examine the role of mandated political representation in providing disadvantaged influence over policy-making.
No definitive answer in social sciences, why does it work here but not there?
Is there any change in policy? Yes
Political reservation has increased transfers to groups which benefit from the mandate.
Quotas in Indian States: The Procedure
Law requires that the percentage of seats reserved for SC/ST legislator be equal to their % in the state’s population.
In selecting reserved jurisdictions, preference is given to jurisdictions with a higher population share of the group in whose favour reservation is being practiced, while ensuring a sufficient dispersal of reserved jurisdictions within the state.
SCs make up roughly 16% of the Indian population, and STs another 8%.
Scheduled Castes (SCs): classified by, in number x in scheduled institution these people are listed by name
Tribe Castes (TC's): very marginalised, not part of same social hierarchy, but exceptionally poor and marginalised.
Census updates the population every 10 years. The reservations change proportionally to the census.
This takes effect at the next state election after the census. The elections take place every 5 years (there will only be elections in every 3/4 states who will go through elections).
Pande exploits this institutional feature of reservation to isolate its impact .
Data Variables
A data set of the 16 major indian states which spans the period 1960-1992
These states account for over 95% of the Indian population.
We are going annually, and the population numbers come every 10 years due to the census and staggered elections (interpolation).
Typically occurs in the early parts of the decade, and the population changes in your data, and the constituencies don't change until the next election. This creates a random shock to the reservation status.
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