Not sure if descriptive representation is the right technical term (question 1: is it?), but I believe that the Democratic Party has, for some bodies, requirements that there is gender balance on some committees and maybe in parts of the delegations to the national convention. Question 2: is that correct?
Q 3: Do the Republicans have this?
Q 4: Are there any counties that feature this kind of requirement (not just gender but ethnicity or etc) in any legislative or judicial body? (Required, not expectations.)
I know that commissions of various kinds in the U.S. often have partisan distributional requirements (e.g., FEC), but I’m thinking more along the lines of race, gender, ethnicity, etc. lines.
The Democratic National Committee requires gender parity, IIRC, so that every state is represented by equal or near-equal numbers of men and women. This is true for national committee members and convention delegates, I think. I don’t believe the Republicans have such a rule.
I don’t know any counties (maybe you meant “countries”?) that have such a rule, although ISTR that some Scandinvian country does - Iceland, maybe, or Denmark, for the parliament of one or the other? - also requires gender parity. Not sure.
The Roman Catholic Church has a male-only rule for electing popes. But you probably already knew that.
ISTR that some Scandinvian country does - Iceland, maybe, or Denmark, for the parliament of one or the other? - also requires gender parity. Not sure.
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Couldn’t find anything about that on Wikipedia for Denmark or Iceland (but I did learn they were once co-governed) but if others have ideas on this recollection by EHeir, that would be great. (And surprising.)
I would think some nations with histories of ethnic strife might have some language, religion or ethnicity “portionality” to some bodies or commissions. No?
The DNC also requires each state to have a delegate selection plan with actual target percentages for outreach to various groups. The goal of this is to see that these groups are represented in the Convention Delegates in proportion to their representation in the Democratic electorate.
(The full plan is here (pdf) – see about page 22 for outreach info. Our delegation this year met or exceeded all of these goals, including sending the youngest Delegate at the Convention, from my own neighborhood.
Lebanon has their National Pact which dictates, among other things, the proportion of Christians to Muslims in Parliament. Originally it was unwritten, and hence not absolutely required. It’s been modified by the Taif Agreement[sup]1[/sup], which I believe is a written treaty, but I don’t know if it has official status as constitutional law or not.
[sup]1[/sup] Proportion changed from 6-5 Christian-Muslim to an even split. Also now applies to the cabinet.