IB Global Politics Equality Questionbank

(d) Evaluate the extent to which transnational protest movements are more effective than domestic policy reform at reducing racial inequality.

Stimulus

Some forms of inequality cannot be understood by looking at one factor at a time. A single-axis analysis examines gender, race or class separately, asking, for instance, whether women as a group or migrants as a group are disadvantaged. This can miss the people who sit at the crossing point of several systems at once.

Intersectionality, and the related idea of a matrix of domination, holds that overlapping structures of gender, class and nationality combine to produce compounded disadvantage that no single lens captures. Consider migrant domestic workers in the Gulf, mostly women from South and Southeast Asia, tied to employers under the kafala sponsorship system. Their vulnerability comes not from gender, class or migrant status alone but from all three at once. When Qatar reformed elements of kafala in 2020, removing exit-permit and job-change restrictions, it acknowledged that these workers face a distinctive, layered form of inequality.

Adapted from "Where Systems Meet: Intersectionality and the Politics of Compounded Inequality" by Dr Fatima Haidari, Global Journal of Gender and Labour (2021).

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, distinguish between a single-axis analysis and an intersectional analysis of inequality.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend one strategic change that would make the partnership more effective at reducing the compounded inequality faced by migrant domestic workers.

Stimulus

Text extract (adapted): "In October 2019 a rise in metro fares triggered mass protests across Chile, one of the most unequal countries in the OECD. The slogan 'it is not 30 pesos, it is 30 years' captured a deeper anger at decades of inequality in pensions, health and education. The unrest opened a constitutional process: in 2020 voters overwhelmingly backed rewriting the market-oriented constitution inherited from the Pinochet era. Yet a proposed new constitution was rejected by voters in 2022, and a second, more conservative draft was rejected in 2023. Chile ended the process with its old constitution still in place and its inequality largely intact, raising the question of whether deep inequality can be reduced without structural change."

Source: Adapted from political and economic reporting on Chile since 2019.

(a) Using the stimulus, identify three things it suggests about inequality and the constitutional process in Chile.

(b) Analyse one political issue raised by the failure of Chile's constitutional process to reduce inequality.

(c) Recommend a course of action that the Chilean government could take to reduce economic inequality after the failed constitutional process, and consider its limitations.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which reducing economic inequality requires structural change rather than targeted social policy.

Stimulus

Getting women into parliament is not the same as getting women's interests onto the statute book. Descriptive representation concerns the number of women who hold office: how closely the composition of a legislature mirrors the population it serves. Bolivia is a striking case. Following its 2009 Constitution and electoral rules requiring gender parity and alternation, women came to hold around half the seats in its Chamber of Deputies, among the highest shares in the world.

Substantive representation concerns something harder to count: whether the presence of women actually shifts laws, budgets and priorities in their favour. In Bolivia, many elected women reported harassment and pressure to resign, prompting a 2012 law against political violence and harassment targeting women. The gap between the two forms of representation shows that a parliament can look equal while women's ability to shape outcomes remains constrained.

Adapted from "Counting Women In: Numbers Versus Voice in Women's Political Representation" by Dr Valentina Rojas, Latin American Review of Gender and Politics (2022).

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, distinguish between descriptive representation and substantive representation.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend one strategic change that would make the partnership more effective at turning women's presence into real influence over policy.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which gender quotas can deliver substantive equality for women in politics. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

Stimulus

Text extract (adapted): "In October 2021 Norway's Supreme Court ruled that two large wind farms on the Fosen peninsula, part of one of Europe's biggest onshore wind projects, had been built on reindeer grazing land in breach of the Sami people's right to enjoy their own culture under international law. The turbines were not removed. For 500 days the licences remained in force despite the judgment, until Sami activists and supporters occupied government offices in Oslo in early 2023, prompting a government apology and negotiations. The dispute set two goals against each other: a green-energy transition prized as a climate solution, and the equality and cultural survival of an indigenous minority."

Source: Adapted from human rights and environmental reporting on the Fosen case.

(a) Using the stimulus, identify three things it suggests about the Fosen dispute in Norway.

(b) Analyse one political issue raised by the Fosen dispute.

(c) Recommend a course of action that the Norwegian government, Sami reindeer-herding communities and wind-farm operators could take to reconcile climate goals with indigenous equality, and consider its limitations.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which the pursuit of climate goals can be reconciled with equality for indigenous peoples.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, explain how a partnership between a state or intergovernmental organization and a non-state actor has been used to reduce inequality faced by a group experiencing compounded disadvantage.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which an intersectional approach is necessary to understand and reduce the inequality faced by marginalised groups. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, explain how a partnership between a state or intergovernmental organization and a non-state actor has been used to strengthen women's political representation.