The CDU and the politics of gender in Germany : bringing women to the Party / Sarah Elise Wiliarty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wiliarty, Sarah Elise, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands--Membership.

Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands.

Women--Political activity--Germany.

Women.

Women--Government policy--Germany.

Women--Government policy--Europe, German-speaking.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 267 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

The CDU & the Politics of Gender in Germany

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book develops the concept of the corporatist catch-all party to explain how the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has responded to changing demands from women over the past forty years. Otto Kirchheimer's classic study argues that when catch-all parties reach out to new constituencies, they are forced to decrease the involvement of membership to facilitate doctrinal flexibility. In a corporatist catch-all party, however, societal interests are represented within the party organization and policy making is the result of internal party negotiation. Through an investigation of CDU policy making in the issue areas of abortion policy, work-family policy, and participation policy, this book demonstrates that sometimes the CDU mobilizes rather than disempowers membership. An important lesson of this study is that a political party need not sacrifice internal democracy and ignore its members in order to succeed at the polls.

Contents:

The puzzle of CDU policy making on women's issues

The corporatist catch-all party model

The postwar CDU : origins of a corporatist catch-all party

The emergence of the Women's Union, 1969-1982

The Women's Union in the dominant coalition, 1982-1989

Looking eastward : the Women's Union and cobbled coalitions, 1989-1998

The rise of Angela Merkel : policy and personnel decisions of the CDU in unified Germany

Christian democracy with and without corporatism : policy making on women's issues in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-511-84920-6

1-107-20880-7

1-282-81816-3

9786612818165

0-511-91747-3

0-511-91649-3

0-511-91845-3

0-511-91468-7

0-511-77944-5

0-511-91288-9

OCLC:

670411520