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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Is The Future Female? Lessons From A Conjoint Experiment On Voter Preferences In Six Arab Countries, Ellen Lust, Lindsay J. Benstead
Is The Future Female? Lessons From A Conjoint Experiment On Voter Preferences In Six Arab Countries, Ellen Lust, Lindsay J. Benstead
Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
Despite growing evidence of pro-female bias in the electorate elsewhere, conventional wisdom holds that voters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) prefer male candidates, presumably due to sexism. We test this conventional wisdom using a conjoint experiment administered to over 30,000 respondents in six MENA countries. We find both male and female respondents are more likely to express support for female candidates and see them as more capable than their male counterparts, even in stereotypically male domains. We argue the increasing demand for political outsiders explains these results. In highlighting the importance of such changes, our study expands …
Do Female Local Councilors Improve Women’S Representation?, Lindsay J. Benstead
Do Female Local Councilors Improve Women’S Representation?, Lindsay J. Benstead
Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
Tunisia’s 2018 municipal elections, in which a legislated quota was implemented and women won 47 percent of seats, raises questions about whether electing female councilors improves women’s representation in clientelistic settings. Using data from the Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI), an original survey of 3,600 Tunisians conducted in 2015 by the Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD), this article investigates the relationship between local councilors’ gender and women’s access to help with personal or community issues. Three findings emerge. First, male citizens are thirteen percentage points more likely than female citizens to know a local councilor and six percentage …
Survey Research In The Arab World: Challenges And Opportunities, Lindsay J. Benstead
Survey Research In The Arab World: Challenges And Opportunities, Lindsay J. Benstead
Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
Survey research has steadily expanded in the Arab world since the 1980s. The Arab spring marked a watershed when surveying became possible in Tunisia and Libya, and questionnaires included previously censured questions. Almost every Arab country is now included in the Arab Barometer or World Values Survey and researchers have numerous datasets to answer theoretical and policy questions. Yet some scholars express the view that the Arab survey context is more challenging than other regions or that respondents will not answer honestly. I argue that this reflects biases of “Arab exceptionalism,” more than fair assessments of data quality. Based on …