Resumen de Decentralization, Political Parties, and Women's Representation: Evidence from Spain and Britain

Meryl Kenny, Tània Verge Mestre

• This article explores the hitherto underresearched relationship between state architecture and women’s political representation, specifically their descriptive or numerical presence. Using a qualitative comparative case study of gender quota reforms in Spain and Britain, we ask how party organizational dynamics mediate the relationship between formal institutions and representative outcomes in recently decentralized countries. We find that the impact of political decentralization on quota adoption and implementation is contingent upon a number of variables related to the party organization, particularly the internal distribution of authority between the central and the regional branches. We conclude that political parties need to be considered as complex and independent actors in analyses of the relationship between state architecture and women’s politics.