Suchergebnisse

This chapter focusses on age differences in partisanship and party–voter congruence, explains whether those parties that manage to get young people to vote, and with whom the young identify, can articulate and aggregate their supporters' preferences. The analysis shows that while the young are less likely to identify with political parties compared to older citizens, more than half of young voters report to be close to political parties. There are no large differences in party–voter policy agreement among the selected age groups. There is no evidence to suggest that young voters are less represented by their preferred parties compared to other age groups; in fact, overall levels of policy representation for all citizens are quite satisfactory. In addition, we were interested in identifying whether different parties perform better with respect to two age groups. The findings suggest that niche parties, and ideologically distinctive parties attract more young partisans, but also that parties successfully balance heterogeneous requests from different age groups, and they all perform their representative roles quite well.

IN CROATIAN: Ovaj tekst se usredotočuje na rodnu stereotipizaciju u predizbornim kampanjama kao diskursnu praksu u medijskom izvještavanju, te na diskursne strategije kojima se same kandidatkinje koriste u predizborno vrijeme, pregovarajući između rodnog identiteta i stranačkih pozicija. U radu se analiziraju intervjui sa stranačkim kandidatima i kandidatkinjama objavljeni u najčitanijim dnevnim novinama (Večernji list i Jutarnji list) te političkim tjednicima (Globus i Nacional) tijekom kampanja za parlamentarne izbore 2003., 2007. i 2011. U istraživanju se primjenjuje kritička analiza diskursa koja uključuje tri međusobno povezane razine: političke kampanje kao društvene prakse, medijsko izvještavanje o izborima kao oblik diskursne prakse te analizu konkretnog teksta (intervjua), pri čemu se odvojeno analizira "glas" medija i "glas" političarki. Pokazuje se da diskursne prakse medija i samih kandidatkinja većim dijelom, bez obzira na stranačku pripadnost intervjuiranih političarki, na različite načine smještaju žene u rodno stereotipne okvire te tako pridonose reprodukciji dominantnih patrijarhalnih obrazaca o ulozi žena u politici. To znači da političke kampanje kao društvene prakse podliježu uobičajenim stereotipima o ženama kao nedovoljno adekvatnima za ravnopravno sudjelovanje u politici s muškarcima, što upućuje na zaključak da nije došlo do značajnije promjene u političkoj kulturi Hrvatske, barem kada je riječ o rodu. --- IN ENGLISH: This paper focuses on gender stereotypes in election campaigns, as a discursive practice present in media reporting, as well as on the discourse strategies employed by female candidates themselves during the election period in order to negotiate between gender identity and party positions. The paper analyzes interviews with party candidates and female candidates published by main daily newspapers (Večernji list and Jutarnji list) and political magazines (Globus and Nacional) during the electoral campaigns of the 2003, 2007 and 2011. The research uses a critical analysis of the discourse that includes three interrelated levels: that of political campaigns as social practice, media reporting on the elections as a form of discursive practice, and the analysis of specific writings (interviews), where separate analyses are made concerning the "voice" of the media and the "voice" of female politicians. The study demonstrates how the discourse practices of the media and of the female candidates, for the most part and irrespective of party affiliation of the interviewed female politicians, place women – in different ways – in gender stereotyped frameworks thus contributing to the reproduction of dominant patriarchal paradigms regarding the role of women in politics. This in turn means that political campaigns, as social practice, are subject to the traditional stereotypes of women as insufficiently adequate for equal representation in politics with respect to men, consequently suggesting that a significant change in the Croatian political culture has not happened yet, at least not in respect of gender issues.

This chapter analyses the gender gap in the attitudes of local elected elites in the countries covered by the survey on municipal councillors within the international project Municipal Assemblies in European Local Governments (MAELG). Some studies indicate that, although broadly the same issues are significant for both women and men, women's perspectives on issues still differ. As women need to be at least a large minority in municipal councils to have an impact on different policies, we use and compare the available statistics on women's participation in local councils in the countries included in the MAELG project to see whether the identified differences (if any) could result in different policy choices.