International Political Science Review

IPSA’s flagship journal, the International Political Science Review (IPSR), starts the year with a special issue on Gender and Political Financing. Money is power, and power is very difficult to access without money. Contesting elections is a very costly affair that compels many candidates around the world to have, and/or raise, large sums of money. Most especially, this applies to candidates in countries who must privately fundraise, but even in countries with public financing and strict regulation of election expenses, candidates face time and opportunity costs.

This special issue (January 2023, Volume 44, Number 1) asks the question whether these costs are gendered. Covering seven case studies in six papers, the authors concretely demonstrate that the costs of running for office are not gender neutral. Rather, the first three contributions convincingly show that women face higher prohibitive costs and face more hurdles while fundraising (see articles by Murray; Atmor and Kenig; Feo et al.). The second trio of articles (Buckley and Mariani; Muriaas et al.; Shin and Kwon) enhance our knowledge of the roles of political parties in mitigating financial gender gaps.

IPSA members can access the full IPSR archive dating back to 1980 through the My IPSA menu. IPSR is published by SAGE and is committed to publishing peer-reviewed material that makes a significant contribution to international political science.

Special Issue: Gender and political financing

Editorial introduction: Gender and political financing 
Rainbow Murray, Ragnhild Muriaas and Vibeke Wang

It’s a rich man’s world: How class and glass ceilings intersect for UK parliamentary candidates
Rainbow Murray

Campaign expenditures and electoral outcomes in Israeli legislative primaries – A financial gender gap?
Nir Atmor, Liran Harsgor and Ofer Kenig

Gendered patterns in candidates’ campaign fundraising: The case of Italy 
Francesca Feo, Chiara Fiorelli and Daniela R. Piccio

Money matters: The impact of gender quotas on campaign spending for women candidates
Fiona Buckley and Mack Mariani

Funding demands and gender in political recruitment: What parties do in Cabo Verde and Ghana
Vibeke Wang, Ragnhild L. Muriaas and Getchen Bauer 

‘Above all, it will boil down to money problems’: The impact of gender-targeted public financing on political parties and women candidates in South Korea
Ki-young Shin and Soo Hyun Kwon

Original Research Articles

The continuum of election violence: Gendered candidate experiences in the Maldives
Elin Bjarnegård

Can women dynasty politicians disrupt social norms of political leadership? A proposed typology of normative change.
Kerryn Baker and Sonia Palmieri