Political empowerment of women

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Anne Phillips

In this innovative contribution to the theory of representation - which draws on debates about gender quotas in Europe, minority voting rights in the USA, and the multi-layered politics of inclusion in Canada - Anne Phillips argues that the politics of ideas is an inadequate vehicle for dealing with political exclusion. But eschewing any essentialist grounding to group identity or group interest, she also argues against any either/or choice between ideas and political presence. The politics of presence then combines with contemporary explorations of deliberative democracy to establish a different balance between accountability and autonomy.

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Yvonne Galligan, Eilís Ward, Rick Wilford

This book gathers the expertise of those researching women and politics in Ireland - both North and South - into a single, comprehensive and accessible textbook on the topic. Contributors are drawn from both academic and activist arenas to bring a multidisciplinary approach to the subject. Contesting Politics examines the central issues of women and the political parties and representation, the relationship between the women's movement and community-based women's groups in Ireland, and women's participation in public bodies and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. The text will be invaluable in women's studies and Irish studies courses as well as within political science.

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Mushirul Hasan

This book is about the 'destiny of India's Muslims', more than 110 million of them. It covers, in the early chapters, the origins of Muslim separatism under the British, the making of the partition of India and its meaning for a host of Muslim communities, families and individuals. Chapter 5 examines the establishment of the 'Nehruvian consensus' in the 1940s and 1950s with its secular vision for India's future, and Chapter 6 attempts to delineate secular identities and the Muslim organisations that ran counter to this process. Chapter 7 illustrates the role of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia as the bearers of the 'beacon lights' of modern and secular understandings of the Muslim future in India. The following chapter examines the breakup of the Nehruvian consensus from the 1960s through to the 1990s, looking in particular at the reasons for the growth of communal activity and the retreat of both Muslims and Hindus into communal political camps. The final section of the book surveys the state of India's Muslims in the period after 6 December 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished. The argument is that Muslim religious and political leaders have failed. There still exists a secular platform, if somewhat narrowed; secular Indian Muslim intellectuals must stand up and be counted on that platform, and take a lead. The author speaks with a moderate and secular voice, and his distinctive contribution needs to be widely heard both inside and outside India.

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Gregory J. Crowley

In urban America, large-scale redevelopment is a frequent news item. Many proposals for such redevelopment are challenged--sometimes successfully, and other times to no avail. *The Politics of Place* considers the reasons for these outcomes by examining five cases of contentious redevelopment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between 1949 and 2000. In four of these cases, the challengers to redevelopment failed to create the conditions necessary for strong democratic participation. In the fifth case--the proposed reconstruction of Pittsburgh's downtown retail district (1997-2000)--challengers succeeded, and Gregory J. Crowley describes the crucial role of independent nonprofit organizations in bringing about this result. At the heart of Crowley's discussion are questions central to any urban redevelopment debate: Who participates in urban redevelopment, what motivates them to do so, and what structures in the political process open or close a democratic dialogue among the stakeholders? Crowley answers these questions and posits a framework based on integrated research in urban politics, urban sociology, and social movements through which to view future contention in urban redevelopment.