Description: In democracies, power is obtained via competition. Yet, as women gain access to parliaments in record numbers, worldwide collaboration appears to be on the rise. This is puzzling: why, if politicians can secure power through competition, would we observe collaboration in Congress? Using evidence from 200 interviews with politicians from Argentina and a novel dataset from 23 Argentine legislative chambers over an 18-year period, Gendering Legislative Behavior reexamines traditional notions of competitive democracy by evaluating patterns of collaboration among legislators. Although only the majority can secure power via competition, all legislators - particularly those who do not have power - can influence the policy-making process through collaboration. Tiffany D. Barnes argues that as women have limited access to formal and informal political power, they collaborate more than men to influence policy-making. Despite the benefits of collaboration, patterns of collaboration vary among women because different legislative contexts either facilitate or constrain women's collaboration.
Brief description: Tiffany D. Barnes is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. With the support of the National Science Foundation and the Ora N. Arnold Fellowship, she conducted extensive fieldwork in Argentina, visiting nineteen of the country's twenty-four provinces, collecting a large dataset of legislative activity, and conducting more than 200 interviews with legislators and elite political observers. In 2013 she was a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Her articles have appeared in journals such as the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Politics and Gender, the Election Law Journal, and the Journal of Women, Politics and Policy.
Review Quotes: "Essential reading for scholars in comparative politics, including those in the fields of Latin American studies, women and politics and legislative studies. While many studies focus on how women can achieve elective office, few examine women's strategies as legislators. This book develops a theory of the conditions under which legislative collaboration is most likely to occur, by focusing on women's legislative behavior. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, Barnes expertly examines legislative collaboration in Argentina, the United States, Rwanda, Uruguay, and South Africa."
Miki Caul Kittilson, Arizona State University