No shortcuts to power: constraints on women's political effectiveness in Uganda

2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Goetz
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equity ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Party System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Representative Office ◽  
Political Effectiveness ◽  
Women In Parliament ◽  
Action Measures ◽  
Political Value ◽  
The Impact

Numbers of women in public representative office have increased dramatically in Uganda since the introduction of the National Resistance Movement's ‘no party’ system, because affirmative action measures have been taken to reserve seats for them in Parliament and local government. This article offers an assessment of the impact of these measures on women's political effectiveness, examining how far women in Parliament have been able to advance gender equity concerns in key new legislation. The article suggests that the political value of specially created new seats has been eroded by their exploitation as currency for the NRM's patronage system, undermining women's effectiveness as representatives of women's interests once in office. This is because the gate-keepers of access to reserved political space are not the women's movement, or even women voters, but Movement elites. The women's movement in Uganda, though a beneficiary of the NRM's patronage, has become increasingly critical of the deepening authoritarianism of the NRM, pointing out that the lack of internal democracy in the Movement accounts for its failure to follow constitutional commitments to gender equity through to changes in key new pieces of legislation affecting women's rights.

Back to the Westminster model? The Brexit process and the UK political system

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212096737
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Baldini ◽  
Edoardo Bressanelli ◽  
Emanuele Massetti
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Westminster Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Quantitative Indicators ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the impact of Brexit on the British political system. By critically engaging with the conceptualisation of the Westminster model proposed by Arend Lijphart, it analyses the strains of Brexit on three dimensions developed from from Lijphart’s framework: elections and the party system, executive– legislative dynamics and the relationship between central and devolved administrations. Supplementing quantitative indicators with an in-depth qualitative analysis, the article shows that the process of Brexit has ultimately reaffirmed, with some important caveats, key features of the Westminster model: the resilience of the two-party system, executive dominance over Parliament and the unitary character of the political system. Inheriting a context marked by the progressive weakening of key majoritarian features of the political system, the Brexit process has brought back some of the traditional executive power-hoarding dynamics. Yet, this prevailing trend has created strains and resistances that keep the political process open to different developments.

Gender time-use gap and task segregation in unpaid work: evidence from Switzerland

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 148-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nollert ◽  
Martin Gasser
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equity ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Unpaid Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Swiss Cantons ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Impact ◽  
And Task

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus first on the development of the segregation of tasks in family and housework in Switzerland and its linkage to the gender time-use gap in unpaid work. In addition, the impact of dual-breadwinner support in policies and culture is examined. Design/methodology/approach The empirical test refers to a comparison of Swiss cantons, and is based on data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey. The analysis traces both the gender gap and segregation from 2000 to 2013, compares them between 25 Swiss cantons, and links them to political and cultural dual-breadwinner support. Findings First, the results suggest that both the gender time-use gap and task segregation in unpaid work decrease in Switzerland. Moreover, the gender gap and segregation do not correlate in the sample of Swiss cantons. Second, both the gender gap and segregation correlate with dual-breadwinner support. However, the political dual-breadwinner support is linked to lower segregation, a smaller gender gap, more male and less female housework, the dual-breadwinner culture promotes female housework and both men’s and women’s family time spent on childcare, without affecting the gender gap and segregation. Research limitations/implications The results, on the one hand, suggest that both the gender time-use gap and the segregation are important but analytically different dimensions of gender equity. On the other hand, the cross-cantonal analysis highlights the socio-political structuration of gender inequality. Originality/value The paper contains the first comparative analysis of the gender time-use gap and task segregation in Switzerland. The results underline the analytical distinction between the gender time-use gap and the task segregation in family and housework. Moreover, the cross-cantonal analysis suggests that the political dual-breadwinner support is an important determinant of the gender divide in unpaid work.

Max Weber and the Late Modernization of Catholicism

2019 ◽  
pp. 333-351
Author(s):  
Bryan S. Turner ◽  
Rosario Forlenza
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Party System ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Political ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Political Modernization ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

While Max Weber wrote extensively on a range of religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and most extensively Protestantism—there is no fully developed sociology of Catholicism. This chapter attempts to construct Max Weber’s missing sociology of Catholicism from the various scattered comments across his works. While Weber saw Protestantism influencing the growth of capitalism (and more broadly modernization), his view of Catholicism was largely negative: it was ritualistic, magical, bureaucratic, and traditional. What would Weber have made of Catholicism in the twentieth century and twenty-first century? This chapter first examines developments in nineteenth-century Catholicism that lay behind Weber’s critical commentary. The second half asks how changes in Catholicism after the Second Vatican Council (informally known as Vatican II, 1962–1965) have brought about a modernization of Catholicism. The chapter argues for the relevance of Weber’s views today by considering the impact of Vatican II on Catholic teaching and practice, arguing that it represents the political modernization of Catholicism. Vatican II represented a radical departure from the political conservatism of the nineteenth century. In principle, the church was no longer critical of secular democracy, pluralism, the party system, and state sovereignty. This modernization, however, began to undermine the universalism of the church and pushed Catholicism toward denominationalism. However, the church did not modernize its teaching on contraception, abortion, marriage, divorce, and family life. This tension between political modernization and what we might simply call “familial conservatism” still haunts the church today.

scholarly journals Women's Citizenship and Neopopulism: Peru Under the Fujimori Regime

2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Rousseau
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Weak Rule ◽  
Made In

AbstractThis article argues that the increased participation of women in Peruvian politics in the 1990s and the advances made in some areas of their citizenship rights are connected to the strategies put in place by some sectors of the women's movement and to the openings provided by the Fujimori regime. Some of the impact of neopopulist rule on political institutions is shown to be positively related to women's increased opportunities during this period; yet the weak rule of law and the political use of the women's agenda by an increasingly questionable regime placed the women's movement in a complex political panorama. A disaggregated analysis of the politics of women's citizenship reveals that women from the popular sectors did not benefit from the same progress in their rights claims as women from the feminist movement or women in party politics.

scholarly journals Electoral Politics in Taiwan: 2008–2012

2016 ◽  
pp. 57-75
Author(s):  
Chiung-chu Lin
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
General Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Triggered Reactions ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Impact

This paper conducts an analysis of the implementation of the new electoral system (single-district, two-votes system) in practice in 2008. It is focused on the research of two aspects: first, the voter’s awareness of the new electoral system; second, the impact of the new electoral system on the political party system. In the research methods, this article combines the analysis of an individual survey data and information on the election results, trying to find an answer to the question about Taiwan’s voters knowledge of the electoral system situation, the factors that affect the knowledge of the electoral system, as well as the issues of the new electoral system’s impact on the change and development of the political party system. The research has found out that: Taiwan’s voter awareness of the current electoral system is not high. The further research into the relations between the knowledge of the electoral system and the voting choice, as well as the control of other possible factors of influence, showed that the voters who have a more correct and clear understanding of the electoral system have the tendency to vote for small parties.From the results of the general information, the practice of the electoral system indeed led to the decline in pluralistic views. The number of effective parties in the parliament has significantly decreased to that one before restructuring. The new electoral system has made survival difficult for small parties, while the rate of the wasted vote in the regional constituency increased dramatically, making it more difficult to represent pluralistic views.These possible problems caused by the new electoral system, also triggered reactions and initiatives among the domestic public concerning the reform of the electoral system in 2015.

Revolution and the Founding Era, 1763–1800

2019 ◽  
pp. 41-70
Author(s):  
Gillis J. Harp
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Party System ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
The Political ◽  
John Adams ◽  
John Dickinson ◽  
Political Value ◽  
Christian Beliefs

By the eve of the American Revolution, Loyalists were some of the most consistent defenders of the hallowed Christian commonwealth ideal, including the principle of social hierarchy. Among Patriots, certain Christian beliefs were also employed by conservatives such as John Dickinson and John Adams to apply the brakes to the more radical implications of the Revolution. Although the new Federal Constitution’s secular character rankled some conservatives, under the emerging First Party system, many High Federalists still stressed the political value of religion. Meanwhile, the radicalism of the French Revolution prompted conservatives to use explicitly Christian arguments to answer Enlightenment challenges to orthodox belief while painting their political opponents as infidels. By the turn of the nineteenth century, evangelicals were becoming more individualistic and less committed to the larger social and institutional project of conservatism.

scholarly journals The composition of the National Assembly of Serbia: Challenges and obstacles

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (90) ◽  
pp. 39-59
Author(s):  
Irena Pejić
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Main Question ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Internal Organization ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact

Given that political parties participate in the formation, structuring and activity of the parliament, their presence has had a dual impact on the National Assembly of Serbia in the past three decades. On the one hand, their influence has been reflected on the internal structure and efficiency of parliamentary work. On the other hand, the party system combined with the electoral model has left its mark on the mode of political representation. The paper focuses on the impact the political parties have had on the National Assembly in the Republic of Serbia, particularly their influence on the internal organization of the Assembly and the effectiveness in the parliamentary process. The main goal is to explore the normative framework and parliamentary practice in order to analyze the actual prospects of the National Assembly to meet the basic postulates for exercising effective national representation. The main question is whether the Assembly, relying on its constitutional autonomy, is able to achieve the goals of the "working parliament" and the political representation of all citizens. The problem develops around the extent to which the people's representation is capable of exercising its constitutional functions if it does not support and protect the differentiated political will of the people. The aim is to point out to the possibilities provided by the normative framework and the need for successful parliamentary practice in exercising parliamentary autonomy. Parliamentary autonomy is necessary not only for good internal organization of parliament and effectiveness in the parliamentary process but also in terms of strengthening the National Assembly's external impact and position towards the holders of the executive power. The subject matter of analysis are the activities of political parties in parliament, observed through the work of parliamentary groups and parliamentary committees, as well as a lack of the parliamentary opposition guarantees.

scholarly journals Manify i prasa. Wizerunki ruchu feministycznego w polskich mediach

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Rosner
Keyword(s):  
Women's Movement ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Daily Press ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Political Effectiveness

The article considers the effect of the feminist demonstrations hold every year on 8 March on the creation and evolution of society’s image of that movement. Thanks to these demonstrations, the women’s movement has attracted the attention of the large circulation press. The author shows the different ways in which this movement is viewed and assesses its demands in the daily press, depending on the political leanings of the newspaper. She also considers the need to change the strategy and the chances of improving the political effectiveness of the feminist movement.

Women and the 1832 Reform Act

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Gleadle
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Theoretical Possibility ◽  
Defining Moments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Female Subjectivities ◽  
Women In Parliament ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Gender Specific

The Reform Act of 1832 stands as one of the defining moments in the political history of Britain, yet its implications for women and their involvement in its passage remain underexplored. The reform bill pertaining to Scotland did not specify that the parliamentary voter should be male. It presumably did not occur to those drafting the Scottish legislation that such clarification was necessary; whereas the gender-specific wording of the statutes covering England, Wales, and Ireland suggests an awareness that there was a theoretical possibility that it might be otherwise open to challenge. These differences are indicative of the subtle fissures in seemingly dominant assumptions concerning female citizenship. This chapter examines how, within the interstices of parliamentary legislation, there were many such moments of telling indeterminacy in the collective understanding of women as political subjects. It also explores the notion of women as ‘borderline citizens’, women in parliament and their political rights from 1830 to 1832, women's involvement in the campaign for reform, and the impact of the reform crisis on female subjectivities.

The Social Movement as Political Party: The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and the Campaign for Inclusion

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly B. Cowell-Meyers
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Party System ◽  
System Variables ◽  
The Impact

For about 10 years beginning in the mid 1990s, Northern Ireland had its own women's political party. The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) was created by members of the women's movement to achieve “equitable and effective political participation” for women. Despite being small, marginal and short-lived, the party increased access for women in nearly all the other political parties in the system. I connect the scholarship on social movements with that on political parties by examining the impact a social movement can have through the venue of its own political party. I argue three main points. First, the success of the NIWC means political parties may be an under-employed tactic in the repertoires of contention used by social movements. Second, the way the movement had an effect as a party is under-theorized in the literature on social movements because it requires consideration of party-system variables such as competition and issue-space. Third, as an identity-based movement, the women's movement in NI construed its goal of access differently than social-movement literature typically does. This under-utilized and under-theorized tactic of movement qua party delivered gains with the potential for long-term influence over policy and cultural values. In short, the movement-party may be an effective mechanism for changing the patterns of democratic representation of marginalized groups.

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