engleski

In Search of a Women-friendly Legislative Agenda: Case study of Parliamentary Questions in Croatia

It is, at the very least symbolically, important that Parliaments reflect their countries’ demographic composition. Representation of different views and from different perspectives speaks volumes for the overall image and trustfulness of the representative process in today’s democracies. It is no wonder that the disparity between the proportions of women in the electorate and women MPs is taken as a red flag for the low quality of political representation. However, the question whether descriptive representation leads to a different style of policy making is a crucial one. Theoretical discussions on substantive representation of women have gone a long way, but the empirical evidence on whether the increase of women presence in parliaments actually results in women-friendly policies remains contentious. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by analysing the differences in non-legislative behaviour of female and male MPs in the Croatian Parliament. The analysis will focus on a data set from the Croatian Policy Agendas Project on oral parliamentary questions (PQs) that covers all parliamentary sessions from the introduction of the PQs in 1992 to the end of 2015. Data set presents a unique opportunity to study the content of oral questions. Case study of Croatia offers an opportunity to study the changes in political agendas and gender differences in parliamentary behaviour over two phases in descriptive parliamentary representation of women but also phases of democratization. Two distinct phases in descriptive representation are: an ‘invisibility’ phase in the nineties and a ‘glass ceiling phase’ from the beginning of the century until the end of 2015. In the first, women could not surpass an 8 percent threshold of parliamentary representation. In 2000, they achieved, almost overnight, a 20 percent representation. This electoral result got petrified until 2015. These phases of representation are all but simultaneous with the two phases of Croatia’s democratization. Throughout the nineties, Croatia was appraised as a defective democracy. It is since the beginning of the century that it is evaluated as a consolidated democracy. Aforementioned phases are a backdrop for the analysis. They enable the periodization and comparison of PQs throughout two decades – connecting the substantive representation of women with descriptive representation in the context of the third wave of democratization. From the starting point of these phases and their distinctive profiles we surmise the following: there will be few, if any, PQs relating to women-friendly policies in the nineties. This is expected because of the low descriptive representation of women, the dominance of the conservative party in power, the exclusionary vision of nation and state building as well as the overall defectiveness of politics and repatriarchalization of Croatian society. Since 2000 more PQs on the subject are expected as well as more modern views on Croatian women. This phase is, however, expected to be more complex. It is surmised that gender differences will play an integral part, on some issues cutting across party lines.

substantive representation ; parliamentary agenda ; women’s interest ; democratization ; Croatia

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