Political quota system for youths: Will it work?
OVER the past week, I’ve received several queries from colleagues and some readers about youth quotas after the Minister of Youth Sports, Arts and Recreation, Hon Kirsty Coventry made a huge announcement. On Twitter, she announced that there is a “pending success story” that 10 Parliament seats will be available for Youth and high possibility of an incentive for hiring youths. Well, all this had no time specificity, all the same, the subject became of quotas: Which countries use them? How do they work? Are they democratic? Are they even effective? These are all big questions, and to answer them thoroughly is beyond the scope of this article, so here is just a snapshot.
The adoption of quotas for politically under-represented groups has become a prominent policy worldwide. An increasing number of states have adopted youth quotas, which aim to foster the election of young members of Parliament under 35 to 40 years of age. To date, youth quotas only occur in tandem with simultaneously or previously adopted gender quotas.
Context is important in this interesting subject. It is a fact that youths worldwide are practically absent from formal politics, considering that only 14% of the world’s Members of Parliament (MPs) are aged under 40. The states of Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya have been at the forefront of adopting youth quotas; and they all did so in the aftermath of conflict and the following (re-)writing of constitutions. A second important wave of youth quota adoption was apparently triggered by the youth-led uprisings in North Africa in 2011, when Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt all introduced youth quotas in their revisited constitutions. However, it is noticeable that other Arab countries that experienced uprisings in 2011, namely Libya, Syria, and Jordan did not make this policy decision.
Several countries have responded by implementing quotas for youths to increase their participation. Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Uganda, among other countries, have adopted some kind of quota to bolster the representation of youths. These quotas take various forms, and it would be good application of wisdom for the Ministry of Youth to sample and implement from the following categories:
Reserved seats
A few countries have reserved seats to promote inclusion in legislative bodies. Illustrative examples for countries with reserved seats for young people include:
Kenya, with 12 members nominated by political parties to represent special interest groups (youths, persons with disabilities, and workers) with the relevant list to be composed of alternating male and female candidates. Uganda, with five seats for people under 30, one of whom must be a woman, Rwanda, with two members of Parliament elected by the
National Youth Council. Written into the reformed Rwandan Constitution of 2003 are reserved seats in the legislative branch of government. Of the 80 members of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the legislature’s 24 seats are reserved for female politicians, two for youth representatives, and one for people with disabilities. While the implementation of a youth quota guarantees youth representation, a common critique in Rwanda is that the youth representation does not effectively meet the needs of the population and is therefore still minimal in its impact. Legal candidate quotas in countries with constitutions or laws providing quotas for young candidates, political parties are obligated to fill all their candidate lists with a minimum number of young people. Several countries have adopted them; impacts vary, and usually depend on the position in which young people are placed on political party lists and the type of electoral system used. Candidate quotas can be an effective means to increase youth representation under the condition that young people are placed in electable positions. This can work in a “closed list” proportional representation electoral system but would not have much of an impact in cases of “open list’ proportional representation electoral system. Yet there is a risk they will have no real impact in terms of increasing the representation of youth in a Parliament if young people are placed too low on the political party candidate list in the case of a closed list proportional representation electoral system.
Reform
For reforms to be implemented, there is a need to understand that young people are not a homogeneous block and that other social aspects (such as gender, rural/ urban dwelling, ethnicity, and language) need to be taken into consideration when designing interventions. The inclusion of youths in political processes is a complex, multidimensional challenge that has to be addressed with a variety of tools, depending on objectives and context. With this in mind, the following reforms have to be identified:
Encourage the introduction of youth quotas in electoral laws by means of reserved seats and/or legal candidate quotas (if appropriate; as they are not the only or necessarily the best solution).
Encourage political parties to embed voluntary quotas for youth in their internal party regulations and place young candidates in electable positions. Recognise and consider the intersectional nature of population groups and take this into consideration when designing interventions.
Conclusion
While at it, the adoption of youth quotas is as puzzling as the adoption of gender quotas. Youths form a considerable part of world populations but are underrepresented in politics.