Gender Politics and Democracy in Post-Socialist Europe

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 contribution to the classical political questions of who is the representative, what is represented, and how representation takes place. In adopting an integrated approach to political representation, the book extends current understanding of this fundamental concept. Using new research, it provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the interplay between emerging democracies and gender politics in post-communist Europe.