This book considers and interrogates the nature of democracy in Europe from a gender point of view, addressing a significant gap in the literature where evaluations of decision-making and European integration studies have overlooked the gendered nature of democracy.
It questions the democratic decision-making process at EU and related nation-state levels and asks a fundamental question about their democratic credentials, in the process taking the principle of deliberative democracy - that those in civil society with a direct interest in an issue should be active participants in decision-making on that issue - and applies it to gender equality.
Holding everything together is the analytical concept of ‘gender democracy’, which is applied to an individual transposition case in each country.
Furthermore the book provides:
- fresh insights into the dynamics of democracy, pointing out strengths and weaknesses at EU and national level
- an examination of the extent to which Europeanisation has affected national law on gender equality
- an examination of the process by which the Goods and Services Directive was formulated, negotiated and given effect to afford a case study of supra-national politics in action
- allows for comparison between supra-national and member-state decision-making alongside that of state-state comparative patterns
- a chapter-by-chapter comprehensive overview of the political, institutional context and an explicit addressing of the following themes in the country-case chapters: membership of the European Union; the decision-making institutions and context; the transposing of the Goods and Services Directive; and Gender democracy
The book is a revised version of RECON Report No 17 Deliberative Processes and Gender Democracy: Case Studies from Europe, a key publication of research undertaken within RECON's WP 4 - Justice, Democracy and Gender.
Full info:
States of Democracy: A Gendered View of Europe
Yvonne Galligan (ed.), Routledge, 2014