The Representation of Men Worldwide

Abstract

The consequences of problematizing men’s political practices and networks instead of analyzing women’s activity as a deviation from the male norm are manifold, yet often relatively simple. This chapter, as a first step in this direction, will deal with some of these consequences. It will analyze the persistent parliamentary dominance of men, rather than the variation of representation of women in parliaments around the world. It will also test the relationship between male dominance and the political practice seen as enabling it, while constraining the representation of women: clientelism. By doing this, previously asked research questions are turned around and the question of whether the opposite causal direction is not really theoretically and logically more appealing is posed and investigated. All these consequences emanate from the initial problematization of men’s political practices and will be clearly visible as this statistical test of the relationship between clientelism and male parliamentary dominance is carried out.