Campaign expenditures and electoral outcomes in Israeli legislative primaries – A financial gender gap?
| Author | Nir Atmor,Liran Harsgor,Ofer Kenig |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/01925121221085439 |
| Published date | 01 January 2023 |
| Date | 01 January 2023 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121221085439
International Political Science Review
2023, Vol. 44(1) 27 –42
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/01925121221085439
journals.sagepub.com/home/ips
Campaign expenditures and
electoral outcomes in Israeli
legislative primaries – A financial
gender gap?
Nir Atmor
Zefat Academic College, Israel
Liran Harsgor
University of Haifa, Israel
Ofer Kenig
Ashkelon Academic College and The Israel Democracy Institute, Israel
Abstract
The last decade has seen an expansion of party primaries as a means of selecting legislative candidates.
Since primaries are rarely subsidized, well-resourced candidates have a considerable advantage, which has
an impact on equality, diversity and representation. This article focuses on the well-regulated legislative
primaries in Israel, examining the gender gap in campaign expenditures, and its implication for the success
of women candidates. The analysis is based on data regarding 365 candidates (97 women and 268 men)
who competed in seven primary contests in three parties between 2008 and 2015. Our findings show that
male candidates spend on average more than female candidates do. However, this difference is pronounced
among new candidates only. Moreover, we find that men do better than women in terms of electoral
success and that this electoral advantage is explained by the differences in campaign expenses and the share
of incumbents between women and men.
Keywords
Political finance, primaries, gender gap, candidate selection, Israel
Introduction
Scholars have long surveyed the electoral process and politicians’ path to power. One aspect of this
subject is the role played by financial resources in the electability of candidates, especially the
effect of money on the success of incumbents and new candidates (Jacobson, 1990; Scarrow, 2007;
Corresponding author:
Nir Atmor, Multi-Disciplinary Studies, Zefat Academic College, Zefat, 13206, Israel.
Email: nira@zefat.ac.il
1085439IPS0010.1177/01925121221085439International Political Science ReviewAtmor et al.
research-article2022
Special Issue Article
28 International Political Science Review 44(1)
Van Biezen, 2008). In recent years, increased attention has been given to other inequalities created
by unequal financing, and specifically to the gender gaps (GGs) it creates (Muriaas et al., 2020).
Some scholars attribute the under-representation of women in politics to the high costs of cam-
paigns. Women candidates, they suggest, find it harder to raise funds for their campaigns, which
puts them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their male counterparts and creates major barriers for them
entering politics (Lawless and Fox, 2010). Others disagree, claiming that there is no gender dispar-
ity in campaign fundraising and expenditure (Anastasopoulos, 2016; Hogan, 2007).
While most research probes the correlation between financial GGs and success in general elec-
tions, we focus on elections at an earlier stage: legislative primary elections. This inquiry is impor-
tant in light of the expanded use of primaries. These inclusive selection methods, once associated
almost exclusively with the United States, have become common in political parties in many other
democracies. The process of intra-party democratization is evident regarding the selection of lead-
ers (Cross and Blais, 2012; Pilet and Cross, 2014) but has also been observed in choosing legisla-
tive candidates. One recent study showed that more than 18 parties in 12 countries employed either
open or closed primaries to determine their legislative candidates at the national level (Sandri and
Seddone, 2015: 10).1
The expansion of legislative primaries has potential consequences for the representation of vari-
ous social groups in parliament. As long as legislative candidates were nominated by party leaders
or by small committees set up for this purpose, money did not play an important role in the process
(Hinojosa, 2012). The adoption of inclusive primaries, however, changed this situation. It forced
prospective candidates to appeal to a broad, atomistic, largely passive selectorate of party members
or supporters. To do so, they had to invest considerable resources in order to campaign effectively.
Since primaries are rarely subsidized by the state, wealthy candidates enjoy an edge in such con-
tests, leaving those such as women, young people and ethnic minorities who have more limited
access to financial sources behind. However, some countries, such as Israel, have adopted cam-
paign finance regulations that impose spending limits on all candidates. Thus, it is not clear whether
such regulated primaries have closed the GG in campaign fundraising and expenses.
In this study we focus on three main questions:
(1) Is there a financial GG in legislative primaries such that women candidates raise and spend
less money on their primary campaigns compared to men?
(2) What is the impact of incumbency status on the funding GG? Does it hold for incumbent
candidates, or is it relevant to new candidates only?
(3) Do GGs in the level of campaign expenses in legislative primaries lead to less electoral
success among women candidates compared to men?
We are thus looking at spending from two complementary perspectives. In the first, expenses
are the dependent variable. We are interested in determining whether women are at a disadvantage
in these intra-party contests. While some scholars show that women tend to raise less money than
men on average (Uhlaner and Schlozman, 1986; Wauters et al., 2010), others demonstrate that
male and female politicians spend equivalent amounts of money on their campaigns (Burrell, 1985;
Hogan, 2007). While we assume that a GG exists, we also factor in the incumbency status of the
candidates. As previous studies show (e.g., Crespin and Dietz, 2010; Hogan, 2007), female incum-
bents are often similar to male incumbents when it comes to campaign financing. In contrast,
women who are new candidates spend less than the average new male candidate.
In our third question, expenses serve as the independent variable. Here we examine how expen-
ditures affect the electoral success of women candidates compared to male candidates. In general,
To continue reading
Request your trial