 |
 |
 |
FOROS
|
|
|
In November 1992, the “European Summit of Women in Power”, held in Athens pointed out the democratic deficit in the European Union member States and proclaimed the need to achieve a better balance in way that public power is distributed between men and women: “The absence of women in the centres of political representation and decision making implies a democratic deficit incompatible with true democracy. If the decision-making process does not involve 52% of society, it runs the risk of ignoring the approaches, viewpoints and interests of half that society. This deficit can only be overcome by a fairer distribution of public and private responsibilities and a more balanced presence of women and men in the political decision-making bodies.”
European female ministers and ex-ministers proposed a very specific formula for this: that there should not be more than 60% or less than 40% of either sex on any electoral list or in any political decision-making and representative posts.
Just as the right to vote marked the starting point of the Feminist Movement, parity democracy is the starting point for the constitution of a true democracy involving all the members of society as a whole.
The democratic deficit poses questions about the legitimacy of existing political structures and must lead us to develop strategies to help the gap between the sexes in decision making. Without interim measures, such as quotas, we cannot bring about any changes in the short-term.
These have been the instruments that have produced the best results so far. The decisions and resolutions of international bodies on this issue are showing increasingly commitment to obliging people to come up with ever more efficient measures to work for true parity or balance in decision making.
CONCLUSIONS
- Democracy is only possible if equality between women and men is a political premise derived from the principles constituting a political core, as occurred with universal suffrage and the separation of powers.
- Women are neither a social category nor a minority. The existence of the two sexes is over and above the Constitution. Quota regulation, consequently, does not open up the floodgates to any fragmentation of universal suffrage, since women are one of the components of the social body and not just one category amongst many.
- We live in a system of unfinished democracy. It is necessary for all citizens, not just women, to be convinced that parity is not just quantitative or a question of numbers, but a philosophical and political issue.
- Political parties play a key role in establishing the candidacies for representative bodies. Quotas for access to posts of political representation or activities for opening up membership of political parties, trade unions and social organisations to more women are ways of encouraging women’s involvement in politics.
- The States have to legislate, bringing the most suitable specific positive action measures into their legal systems in the internal context of each such system. In France and Portugal, constitutional reforms have been passed in order to adopt parity, whilst in other States, the action is taking place in the realms of ordinary legislation.
- Some countries have opted for the system of sanctions or incentives, targetting political parties through laws on their funding, and others that have gone directly through subsidies that the State give for the number of seats obtained. Such systems are not as efficient as those that go directly to admissibility and establish that lists that do not meet the parity requirements will be disqualified.
- In Spain, it is perfectly feasible to draw up legislation to impose parity democracy by law, by establishing a maximum and minimum percentage of representation for both sexes in all kinds of electoral lists at local, regional and national level. This could be done within the current Spanish electoral system without requiring any constitutional amendments, simply by applying article 9.2 in combination with article 14 of the Constitution, on the enforcement of positive-action measures in the Spanish legal system.
- The role of electoral systems is very important in determining the level of female political representation. The choice for a specific system and a specific variant of it, the introduction of a specific corrector either in the vote counting or elsewhere, is not a socially or politically neutral issue, but rather determines the composition of the legislative assemblies and, consequently, the quality of the decisions that these will later reach.
- By examining statistical indicators, we may conclude that the countries in which women are most represented are those with proportional or mixed electoral systems, as compared with those with majority or first-past-the-post system. It also appears that women win seats more easily in big parties and in big constituencies. The preferential vote that allows electors to rank candidates as they wish within any party’s list also benefits the candidates.
- The new Amsterdam Treaty expressly establishes that members of the European Parliament should be elected by universal suffrage according to a uniform procedure throughout the member States. Once the European regulation has been approved, the member States will have to adapt their internal electoral laws within the framework of their Constitutions, to the new European electoral provisions. The balanced participation of women and men, parity democracy must constitute one of the mainstays of electoral reform.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
President of CELEM: Maria Angeles Ruiz-Tagle Morales
Project Director: Paloma Saavedra Ruiz
Technical Coordinator: Carmen Castro García
Administration: Mamen Ñacle Hipólito
