Voluntary party quotas can be either quotas for internal party posts or quotas for different stages of the candidate selection process in the political party.
Internal voluntary party quotas for candidates in general elections are targets set by political parties to include a certain percentage of, for example, women or national minorities as candidates. The quota has voluntarily been adopted by the political party and is not required by law. Parties can choose to stipulate their internal quota in their constitution or in other internal regulatory documents.
With an internal and voluntary quota system, political parties can clearly demonstrate their willingness to encourage disadvantaged groups and to put the idea of fair representation and equal opportunities into practice – even in countries without legislated quotas. Where legislated quotas exist, parties can still choose to go even further in their internal quotas.
Given that internal voluntary party quotas are not mandated by law, they are not legally binding, and there is no sanction system in place. However, since these quotas stem from an internal decision within the party, they are often just as respected as legislated quotas and therefore also just as effective.
There have been efforts among political parties to recruit ethnic minority candidates, especially in local, but also in national, elections on a voluntary basis. One means to increase minorities’ participation is to introduce voluntary quotas, but there are several other steps that have been undertaken by political parties, such as the establishment of ethnic liaison units in order to promote the party’s principles within ethnic communities, or to serve as recruitment centres for ethnic minorities to become political candidates.
Types of voluntary party candidate quotas
Voluntary party quota requirements for minorities can be on three levels:
- Quotas for the pool of potential candidates
This quota type is designed to open up the possibilities for party selection committees or voters in primary elections to select candidates from a more diverse pool of potential candidates than is normally presented to them. One way of broadening the pool of potential candidates would be to secure the representation of ethnic minorities in the possible pool of candidates. In a very few cases, ethnic groups have created their own lists, only containing candidates representing the minority.
- Quotas for candidates/candidate lists
Most voluntary party quotas fall into this category, where a fixed number or percentage of the places on the candidate lists or total number of candidates is set aside for persons belonging to the group targeted. For this type of voluntary quota to be really effective, it is often combined with a placement criteria whereby the disadvantaged groups are promised not only nomination but nomination to winnable seats. This is sometimes called a "double quota". Quotas for candidate lists exist in plurality/majority systems but tend to be most effective in proportional representation systems.
- Quotas for the elected representatives
Quotas for the elected representatives target the outcome of the elections. A political party can decide before an election that out of the seats they win in an election, a certain number or percentage should be set aside for ethnic minority groups.
