FAMGENPO

"Family Politics, Party Politics, and Gender Politics: Comparing Five Cases"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Why are we seeing a proliferation of female politicians who members of political dynasties? Female politicians who are the wife, widow, daughter or sister of a prominent male politician have risen to the highest posts in politics as heads of parties and even heads of state. How can we account for this phenomenon? What does it mean about the trajectories of women in politics? Does the trend signal the rise of a new kind of power elite and a decline in democratic accountability? And finally, what does it tell us about transformations in early twenty-first century democratic politics? FAMGENPO proposes to compare the political trajectories of two successful cases of direct familial succession (Marine le Pen of France’s National Front, and Argentina’s President, Cristina Kirchner), two mid-range cases of successful indirect familial succession (Israel’s Tzipni Livni, and Chile’s Michelle Bachelat), and one failed case (Ségolène Royal of the French Socialist Party). Through interviews, participant observation, and analysis of archival material in Argentina, Chile, Israel and France, FAMGENPO aims to explain the rise of this phenomenon, including to unanticipated countries like France, just as many political parties have turned to elections in choosing party leadership. Existing scholarship on women in legislative politics cannot explain this trend. I propose to examine the relationship between social movements and political parties, past alliance practices of powerful, male leaders, the symbolic dimensions of being a political wife, widow, or daughter, and electorates and party rank-and-file seeking change by turning to women leaders at the same time as membership in a familial dynasty can offer a sense of stability. Finally, I plan to examine the possibility that electorates have become disenchanted with rational-bureaucratic political careers, and are turning to women politicians from such dynasties for whom politics is fundamentally familial and personal.'