Réjean Pelletier

More Feminists or More Women? Descriptive and Substantive Representations of Women in the 1997 Canadian Federal Elections

The debate about the underrepresentation of women in politics rests on two conceptions of political representation, namely the descriptive and the substantive. The descriptive perspective is that political institutions should reflect the composition of civil society, while the substantive (or feminist) conception argues that, since women offer unique perspectives, their exclusion from political power means that their needs, demands, and interests would currently not be echoed in the political arena. However, a causal link is sometimes too easily established between the number of women elected and its consequences for the female population in general. This article defines, within the context of Canadian parliamentarianism, the scope and limits of this equation between descriptive and substantive representation of women. The conclusion reached is that feminist consciousness has a more significant influence than gender on opinions regarding liberal and gender-related issues. It appears the best feminist strategy to descriptively and substantively represent women is to promote women within political parties, and to elect women who are feminists. The names of the Canadian political parties appear in abbreviated form: Bloc Québécois (BQ), Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), and Reform Party (RP).

More Women Constituency Party Presidents A Strategy for Increasing the Number of Women Candidates in Canada

The purpose of this article is to explore the idea that the gender of constituency party presidents makes a difference in the recruitment of women as candidates in federal politics in Canada, notably by examining the attitudes of female and male party gatekeepers towards the presence of women in politics. Two hypotheses inspired us. The first suggests that female presidents are more likely than male presidents to assess candidates using traits more likely to be possessed by women. The second hypothesis proposes that women are more likely than men to support measures for increasing the number of women in politics. The first hypothesis is not confirmed: female presidents do not appreciate feminine traits any more than male presidents. The second is only partly confirmed. Far from being the only variable to influence support for measures promoting women candidates, gender appears to be a secondary determinant when the variables of political party and the feminist consciousness are taken into account. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to neglect the gender variable because, depending on the political party, a woman president can make a difference, especially when it comes to the Right and Centre parties.

Les femmes sont-elles candidates dans des circonscriptions perdues d'avance? De l'examen d'une croyance

We can read in the literature that women more often than men are candidates in constituencies where defeat is expected. This study examines whether this belief is accurate. The population examined includes male and female candidates for the Quebec Liberal party and the Parti Quebecois during the 1976, 1981, 1985 and 1989 elections. Three different formulas were applied to the 958 electoral situations, from which one global difficulty index was devised. Using a log-linear model, the relation between the variables “sex of candidate” and “constituencys level of difficulty” (high, average or low) was compared. Results have shown that between 1976 and 1989, women were not more likely than men to run in constituencies where there was no hope that they would win. It must be noted though, that in 1981, fewer women than men ran for the Parti Quebecois in constituencies where victory seemed highly probable. However, when only new candidacies are considered, party affiliation becomes the most significant variable. In conclusion, it is noted that political parties will have to collaborate if more women are to become members of the National Assembly.

Cultural nationalism and political tolerance in advanced industrial societies: The Basque country and Catalonia

This study endeavours to elucidate the nature of the cultural form of nationalism flourishing in some advanced industrial countries. We perform this task by estimating a LISREL model aiming at identifying the structure of values and attitudes explaining the nationalist identity in two economically advanced regions of Spain, the Basque Country and Catalonia. We found empirical evidence showing the existence of a form of cultural nationalism whose proponents adhere to a set of liberal values, notably political tolerance. Our findings point strongly to the emergence of a form of liberal nationalist identity, a phenomenon that departs markedly from the politically reactionary forms of rightist nationalism which are nurtured by intolerance. Moreover, these results support the cultural nationalism theory, which differs significantly from the explanations derived from the Modernization theory and from the model assuming a dichotomy between civic and ethnic nationalism. This study is the first demonstration that the reconciliation of liberalism and nationalism is empirically founded in at least two important cases of cultural nationalisms.

Les nouveaux mouvements sociaux constituent-ils un défi pour les partis politiques? Le cas du Québec

Does the rise of new social movements (NSMs) represent a challenge for the traditional political parties in Quebec? Though this question can be answered from many perspectives, this study focuses on the programmatic aspect of this challenge that encompasses both a number of new societal issues and adherence to new values promoted by the NSMs. More precisely, it addresses the following questions: have the issues of environment and the respect of womens rights been already integrated into the political platforms of the two mainstream political parties in Quebec, the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Quebecois? Can the activists of those political parties be distinguished from the members of environmental and womens rights movements with regard to their values? On the one hand, both the Liberal party and the Parti Quebecois have for a long time incorporated into their platforms issues linked to the defence of the environment and to the promotion of gender equality. On the other hand, the authors observe that the adherence to postmaterialist values is stronger in the NSMs than in the parties. One main conclusion is that one cannot compare adherence to the new values in the parties and the NSMs as two homogeneous blocs. Instead, the authors see four distinct organizations. They encourage further research to examine other dimensions of the problem such as the organizational aspect of the political challenge posed by the rise of NSMs.