Utilizing the concept of political representation, this book scrutinizes women's legislative presence and highlights the opportunities and obstacles to parity democracy in the post-Communist region of Europe. The book examines the link between women's membership in national parliaments and the substantive representation of gender interests. It investigates the role of civil society, the state, and the European Union in representing women's interests and in promoting gender politics. In revisiting Pitkin's account of political representation, the book provides an important and timely...

This text explores the relationship between women, the state and democratic politics in Ireland today. It highlights the conservatism of the political culture shared by all traditions on the island, and how this culture circumscribes women's political agency in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The multi-layered political system of the European Union offers a unique environment for the study of comparative democracy. Its policies seek to give effect to an agreed range of values, including that of gender equality.

This book explores gender equality and democratic politics in Europe. It discusses how democratic politics engages with gender equality in the European Union and examines what happens when a core democratic value of the European Union, equality between women and men, is given policy effect in supra-national and domestic level politics. It asks how...