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The gender of representation: On democracy, equality, and parity
The debate regarding the statutory introduction of gender parity in electoral lists has
been led, on the one hand, by those who envisage parity as a way to attain substantive
equality between the genders. The opposition has been led by those who, on the other
hand, reject it as going against the very principle of equality in its formal dimension,
as well as against the autonomy of political parties. Based on the experience of France
and Italy on this matter, this article discusses both sets of arguments and applies them
to the Spanish context. It further defends the need to bypass the theoretical parameters
of equality and affi rmative action in order to place the defense of electoral parity within
the theoretical parameters of the postliberal democratic state. It aims, therefore, at
articulating electoral parity as a conceptual requisite of the democratic state