The Wardman Wire

The Rwandan parliament now has women in 55% of its seats. Under the Rwandan constitution, 30% of parliamentary seats must go to women and women elected in these reserved seats are not allowed to represent any party. There are also 3 seats in the 80-seat parliament reserved in other ways - 2 for youth representatives and one for a disabled person.

Whilst it is inevitable that this result will be proclaimed as a “breakthrough” for women and as “the way it should be everywhere,” I can’t help but disagree completely.

In any other situation, a parliament with 55% of women would be something to celebrate, but with the extent to which a quotes have been set does not make it a celebratory achievement. True democracy does not want quotas.

I do not like the Rwandan democratic system at all. Quotas are the very opposite of democracy. They give some a higher position than others, rather than leaving everything up to the choice of the people.

Rwandan “democracy” is not democracy so long as quotas survive. Representation does not require that parliament is a mirror image of society, just that parliament takes in to account the views and opinions of the entire society. Quotas enforce inequality in ine way or another, and since candidates for these female-specific seats cannot represent any party, the entire democratic legitimacy of the Rwandan parliament itself is fundamentally undermined.

Democracy and equality are inextricably linked. Without equality, there can be no true democracy, and without democracy there can be no true equality. Rwanda does not currently have democratic equality because the quota system means that men are discriminated against.