Local Political Representation as a Pathway to Power: A Natural Experiment in India

Abstract

What drives the career advancement of women politicians in opaque selection environments where party activists hold sway? I argue that women’s higher presence in local politics not only improves party elite responsiveness to greater talent supply (top- down mechanism), but also expands women’s capacity to organize grassroots activist networks to influence party nomination decisions (bottom-up mechanism). Using the natural experiment of gender quotas in Delhi, which cause as-if-random variation in the number of local reserved seats within state constituencies, I estimate a novel effect of gender quotas. In state constituencies with women’s higher presence in local politics, local women politicians are more likely to be promoted, and senior women politicians are more likely to get renominated. Qualitative evidence shows how women leverage grassroots networks and forge informal connections across party hierarchies. By highlighting women’s strategic political networks and grassroots organizing, I emphasize its crucial role in shaping their political careers.

Keywords: Descriptive representation, female leadership, gender quota, natural experiment, India