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ch. 1. Introduction -- ch. 2. Gender-sensitive political parties -- ch. 3. Gender-sensitive political representatives -- ch. 4. Internal parliamentary working procedures -- ch. 5. Room for women's interests and concerns -- ch. 6. The production of gender-sensitive legislation -- ch. 7. The politics of feminist awareness.

This essay reviews two research programs. The first focuses on variations in the number of women elected to national parliaments in the world (descriptive representation), & the second focuses on effects of women's presence in parliament (substantive representation). The theory of the politics of presence (Phillips 1995) provides reasons for expecting a link between descriptive & substantive representation. The safest position would be to say that results are "mixed" when it comes to empirical support for the theory of the politics of presence. However, when a large number of studies covering a wide set of indicators on the importance of gender in the parliamentary process are piled together, the picture that emerges shows that female politicians contribute to strengthening the position of women's interests. Adapted from the source document.

This article focuses on women's representation in the Swedish Riksdag. The theory of the politics of presence serves as a point of departure. The aim is to underpin empirically -- or to test empirically -- the assertion that female politicians, to a greater extent than male politicians, represent the interests of women. The concept of women's interests divides, on a theoretical level, into three components: the recognition of women as a social category; acknowledgement of the unequal balance of power between the sexes; & the occurrence of policies to increase the autonomy of female citizens. On the empirical level, this corresponds to measurements indicating female vs male MPs' attitudes & behavior in areas such as gender equality & social welfare policy. The data used are parliamentary survey studies from 1985, 1988, & 1994. The analysis controls for effects of politicians' gender when other factors -- eg, party affiliation, age, education, & parliamentary experience -- are taken into account. The main result is that the theory of the politics of presence gains strong empirical support. What this study contributes is a significant measure of stability for the feminist critique of more established theories of representative democracy. 7 Tables, 1 Appendix, 41 References. Adapted from the source document.

Gender differences in Swedish voting behavior within political parties are examined through analysis of data from the 1991 Swedish Election Study (N = 2,371 respondents), focusing on male (M) vs female (F) images of political parties. Three parties were characterized by central issues that linked M & F voters & were found to be gender homogeneous: the Social Democratic Party was linked by employment & social issues, the Conservative Party by employment & taxation issues, & the Christian Democratic Party by family policy issues. Large gender differences were found in the Centre Party, Liberal Party, & Left Party. The Left Party had the most overt gender differences, with Ms emphasizing employment & taxation issues & Fs oriented toward foreign policy & environmental issues. The Green Party & New Democracy displayed mixed pictures of M & F differences in voting & orientation toward political issues. 14 Tables, 28 References. D. Generoli

How can one explain the transformation of elected assemblies like national parliaments? In this study it is argued that much can be gained from taking the assumption of political generations more seriously when trying to explain transformations of the political agenda -- for example, of themes and topics brought up in the parliamentary process. More specifically, the article expands on previous research in three ways: first, it launches the concept of 'parliamentary political generation' where the core element is the combination of an influx of large numbers of newcomers into the elected assembly and an electoral context that is formative -- that is, that exhibits characteristics that distinguish the election from other elections. Second, an empirical test is conducted where other factors such as party affiliation and social background characteristics are controlled for. Finally, the test on the impact of parliamentary political generations is conducted in a context -- the Swedish Riksdag -- where parliamentary party groups are strong. The data used is the Parliamentary Surveys 1985-2010 conducted at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The political generation in focus is the 'Class of 94'. The results show that the Class of 94 distinguish themselves by being more feminist than their senior colleagues and other groups of newcomers in Swedish elections. This is the feminist generation in Swedish politics. Adapted from the source document.

Conditional cash transfer programs, an innovation in social welfare administration, have received considerable acclaim as a means of enhancing human capital and reducing leakage of public resources through corruption. While numerous studies examine the effects of the program on human capital indicators in Mexico and various other countries that have adopted the approach, little is known about the effects of these programs on levels of corruption and on political life more generally. Using data from Transparency International Mexico, the Federal Register of Civil Society Organizations, and the national census, this paper analyzes whether conditional cash transfers have any bearing on corruption but also on two other aspects of political life argued to affect government probity in the long term: the density of civil society organizations and the empowerment of women as indicated by levels of active involvement in civil society. The conclusions are encouraging with respect to reducing corruption but rather dismal regarding the effects on civil society and the empowerment of women.