In 1999 and 2000, France adopted laws to ensure equal access to elected office for women and men. Parity Democracy explores the evolution and influence of France's gender parity reforms, from their historical roots to their recent extension beyond the electoral sphere. Drawing on extensive interviews, as well as on European and French legal documents, Praud and Dauphin show that although these reforms have not dramatically boosted women's representation in the National Assembly, they have set in motion a process of feminization in the electoral sphere that bodes well for the future of parity democracy.

This book is a treatise on how to create real democracy by leveling the world economic playing field. It maintains that current democracy is pseudo democracy. It maintains that global free trade is unfair trade and is causing failed states. Parity Economics offers a solution that is fair for all. It shows how every country can create an economy that will generate jobs so that its people do not have to immigrate for employment. Only a viable economy based on Parity Economics can provide a full employment economy that will support genuine democracy. Parity Democracy will be the first real representative democracy in history.

In 1999 and 2000, France adopted laws to ensure equal access to elected office for women and men. Parity Democracy explores the evolution and influence of France's gender parity reforms, from their historical roots to their recent extension beyond the electoral sphere. Drawing on extensive interviews, as well as on European and French legal documents, Praud and Dauphin show that although these reforms have not dramatically boosted women's representation in the National Assembly, they have set in motion a process of feminization in the electoral sphere that bodes well for the future of parity democracy.

France is notorious for the underrepresentation of women in its halls of politics. Having been unsuccessful at implementing quotas for female candidates--unlike several of their European neighbors--France passed a gender parity law in 2000 that required all political parties to field an equal number of male and female candidates. Yet in the 2002 elections the main political parties fell well short of nominating equal numbers of male and female candidates. How did parity replace gender quotas as the preferred way to achieve greater representation for women in elected office? Why have these gender-based measures been embraced by some parties and not others? And, why do parties sometimes fail to implement quotas and parity? Gender Quotas, Parity Reform, and Political Parties in France considers this transition from quotas to parity, providing a history of French women's rights and the French electoral process, as well as an examination of the roles of the Socialist and Gaullist political parties. Compelling and clearly written, Opello has created a work that bridges an existing gap in literature about contemporary France and will appeal to scholars of gender, politics, and France.

What is the ethical basis of democracy? And what reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? And when do we have reason to say that we may justly ignore democratic decisions? These questions must be answered if we are to have answers to some of the most important questions facing our global community, which include whether there is a human right to democracy and whether we must attempt to spread democracy throughout the globe. This book provides a philosophical account of the moral foundations of democracy and of liberalism. It shows how democracy and basic liberal rights are grounded in the principle of public equality, which tells us that in the establishment of law and policy we must treat persons as equals in ways they can see are treating them as equals. The principle of public equality is shown to be the fundamental principle of social justice. This account enables us to understand the nature and roles of adversarial politics and public deliberation in political life. It gives an account of the grounds of the authority of democracy. It also shows when the authority of democracy runs out. The author shows how the violations of democratic and liberal rights are beyond the legitimate authority of democracy, how the creation of persistent minorities in a democratic society, and the failure to ensure a basic minimum for all persons weaken the legitimate authority of democracy.

Despite explicit commitments to gender equality, women experience complex modes of disadvantage and discrimination in all nations of the world. Offering sophisticated insights into the persistence of gendered differences in opportunities, roles, power, and rights in societies across the globe, this volume investigates factors that both enable and constrain women's advancement. From intimate relations within families, to social norms, relations, ideologies, and structures of power, to political institutions, electoral systems, and public policies, the chapters analyze possibilities for and obstacles to inclusive democratic practices and identify interventions essential to enable democratic values to take root. Contributors from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the USA provide detailed assessments of the social, economic, and political condition of women, their mobilizations to produce transform gendered power and authority in diverse nations, and their efforts to enhance the quality of their lives, their communities, and democratic governance.

What equality means in three modern democracies, both to leaders of important groups and to challengers of the status quo, is the subject of this wide-ranging canvass of perceptions and policy. It is based on extensive questionnaire data gathered from leaders in various segments of society in each countrybusiness, labor unions, farm organizations, political parties, the media-as well as from groups that are seeking greater equalityfeminists, black leaders in the United States, leaders of the Burakumin in Japan. The authors describe the extent to which the same meanings of equality exist, both within and across nations, and locate the areas of consensus and conflict over equality. No other book has compared data of this sort for these purposes. The authors address several major substantive and theoretical issues: the role of values in relation to egalitarian outcomes; the comparison of values and perceptions about equality in economics (income equality) and politics (equality of influence); and the difference among the nations in the ways political institutions affect the incorporation of new demands for equality into the policymaking process. They pay particular attention to how policy is set on issues of gender equality. This book will be controversial, for some see no room in the understanding of political economy for the analysis of values. It will be consulted by a general audience interested in politics and culture as well as by social scientists. Elites and the Idea of Equality is an informative sequel to Equality in America by Sidney Verba and Gary R. Orren (Harvard University Press), which considers similar topics in a national context.