Consolidating Democracy or Male Rule: A Feminist Discursive Institutionalist Approach to Democratic Consolidation

今天，在巩固的民主国家，妇女被排除在政治之外证明，巩固的民主并不能保证妇女享有平等的政治机会。大多数关于性别和民主的现有研究都把重点放在性别配额和选举制度上来解释这个问题。然而，他们倾向于掩盖历史背景和遗产可能对当今性别民主实践的影响。路径依赖研究表明，随着时间的推移，模式化的政治规则和实践会塑造未来的政治现实。因此，对民主巩固过程中性别政治进程的考察可能有助于解释巩固的民主国家中妇女持续存在的政治不平等。不幸的是，人们对民主巩固的性别方面研究不足。该项目的任务是通过解构主流巩固框架，并使用后结构主义和女权主义话语制度主义方法，重新制定另一种性别框架，来分析民主巩固的性别方面。这项研究认为，民主的巩固嵌入了性别规范、实践和权力关系中，这些规范、实践和权力关系被认为是民主的，尽管它们有可能排斥女性。这些性别规范、实践和权力关系的习惯形成了女性长期的社会政治条件。更具体地说，本研究认为，从长远来看，男性化的观念和对民主思想和实践的习惯化限制了女权主义变革的实现，而更平等主义的观念和习惯化更有利于这种进步。这一理论将通过爱尔兰和瑞典的性别民主轨迹的解释过程追踪（IPT）来证明。这个项目不仅有可能提供对民主巩固的新理解，而且还有助于通过具体说明排他性的政治习惯如何阻碍妇女的政治机会以及我们如何消除它们来加强妇女的政治代表性。

The exclusion of women from politics in consolidated democracies today proves that theconsolidation of democracy does not guarantee equal political opportunities for women. Mostexisting studies of gender and democracy have explained this problem by focusing on genderquotas and electoral systems. However, they have the tendency to gloss over the bearing thathistorical contexts and legacies may have on present-day gendered democratic practices. Pathdependence studies have showed that patterned political rules and practices over time shapefuture political realities. Therefore, an examination of the gendered political processes duringdemocratic consolidation may help to explain the persisting political inequalities for women inconsolidated democracies. Unfortunately, the gendered aspects of democratic consolidationhave been understudied. This project takes on the task to analyse the gendered aspects ofdemocratic consolidation by deconstructing the mainstream consolidation frameworks andreformulating an alternative gendered framework using a poststructuralist and feministdiscursive institutionalist approach. This study argues that the consolidation of democracy isembedded with gendered norms, practices and power relations that are perceived to bedemocratic despite the possibility of them being exclusionary towards women. The habituationof these gendered norms, practices and power relations shape long-term socio-politicalconditions for women. More specifically, this study posits that masculine conceptions andhabituation of democratic ideas and practices restricts the realisation of feminist changes inthe long-term, while more egalitarian conceptions and habituation better enable suchprogress. This theory will be demonstrated through an interpretive process tracing (IPT) of thegendered democratic trajectories in Ireland and Sweden. This project has the potential to notonly offer a new understanding of democratic consolidation, but also contribute to the ongoingefforts to strengthen women's political representation by specifying how exclusionary politicalhabits can hinder political opportunities for women and how we may undo them.