Abortion And Democracy

Abortion and Democracy offers critical analyses of abortion politics in Latin America’s Southern Cone, with lessons and insights of wider significance. Drawing on the region’s recent history of military dictatorship and democratic transition, this edited volume explores how abortion rights demands fit with current democratic agendas. With a focus on Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, the book’s contributors delve into the complex reality of abortion through the examination of the discourses, strategies, successes, and challenges of abortion rights movements. Assembling a multiplicity of voices and experiences, the contributions illuminate key dimensions of abortion rights struggles: health aspects, litigation efforts, legislative debates, party politics, digital strategies, grassroots mobilization, coalition-building, affective and artistic components, and movement-countermovement dynamics. The book takes an approach that is sensitive to social inequalities and to the transnational aspects of abortion rights struggles in each country. It bridges different scales of analysis, from abortion experiences at the micro level of the clinic or the home to the macro sociopolitical and cultural forces that shape individual lives. This is an important intervention suitable for students and scholars of abortion politics, democracy in Latin America, gender and sexuality, and women’s rights.

This book compares the political process and role of the media using controversy over abortion.

Abortion Politics, Women's Movements and the Democratic State examines the impact of women's movements since the 1960s on the policy-making processes determining abortion laws. The impact of women's movements is assessed in terms of their success in increasing the democratic representation of women generally and movement organizations specifically. Rather than asking 'how many women are in political office' this study asks 'to what extent are women included in the day to day process of making decisions?' Of special interest in this project is the extent to which states, through establishment of women's policy agencies, have assisted, opposed, or ignored the demands of movement activists for access to power and for feminist abortion policies. Researchers have examined these questions in policy debates over the last four decades in 11 advanced industrial democracies: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The findings of this cross-national longitudinal study document that women's movements have been successful in gaining both substantive and descriptive representation on abortion policy in a majority of the 32 debates studied. The ability of women's policy offices to provide a necessary and effective linkage between women's movement activism and increased democratic representation in policy- making varies both cross-nationally and over time. The openness of policy subsystems and the status of the parties on the left are factors that interact with variations in movement cohesion and resources to account for these variations.

Abortion, divorce, and the family: how did the state make policy decisions in these areas in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile during the last third of the twentieth century? As the three countries transitioned from democratic to authoritarian forms of government (and back), they confronted challenges posed by the rise of the feminist movement, social changes, and the power of the Catholic Church. The results were often surprising: women's rights were expanded under military dictatorships, divorce was legalized in authoritarian Brazil but not in democratic Chile, and no Latin American country changed its laws on abortion. Sex and the State explores these patterns of gender-related policy reform and shows how they mattered for the peoples of Latin America and for a broader understanding of the logic behind the state's role in shaping private lives and gender relations everywhere.

Using controversy over abortion as a lens through which to compare the political process and role of the media in these two very different democracies, this book examines the contest over meaning that is being waged by social movements, political parties, churches and other social actors.

Few issues have polarized Canadians and Americans as much as the abortion debate. In this thoughtful and thought - provoking reflection on the implications the law on abortion has on democracy, Mark MacGuigan brings a much - needed perspective to this controversial subject. Few people are as well qualified to do so: MacGuigan is a former law professor, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, a Catholic, and a federal appellate - court judge.Distinguishing carefully between morality and the law, MacGuigan includes a history of the criminal law, the Catholic Church's views, and the often - ignored roles of individual conscience, freedom and responsibility in democracy. He reviews the essential debate, important case histories, and the evolving social perspectives that have attached themselves to discussions of abortion. He also includes chapters on the related issues of contraception and euthanasia. MacGuigan refers to a wide range of influential and international documents and judgements: papal encyclicals, the Wolfenden Report, Roe vs. Wade, a ruling in a case that involved Dr. Henry Morgentaler, and numerous other sources. With great candour, MacGuigan also explores how his own attitude and position have changed to the point where he now opposes any legislation limiting abortion before viability. Those who are seeking clarity of the issues and those who want to uncloud the rhetoric and the arguments should not miss reading this important work.

'Only allow ourselves to praise and honor make-believe, and the next thing will be to find it creeping into the very business of state.'-Solon What is Democracy actually? Can you describe it? I would bet large sums of money that you can't... You might ask, "But how can this be? We live in a Democracy don't we? Are we not educated?" Defining Democracy seems like such a simple thing to do yet the evidence proves otherwise. We are here to discuss this paradox and to journey forward we are forced to acknowledge one simple and quite startling fact: THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT WE IDENTIFY AS 'DEMOCRACY' TODAY IS NOT, I REPEAT, IS NOT ACTUALLY DEMOCRACY! Question: Why are juries selected randomly by lottery? Why don't we elect jury members if election is such a vastly superior method of obtaining the best individuals to weigh crucial decisions? The hard truth of the matter is that, to the corrupt, true democracy is just bad for business. In other words, the 'Abortion of Democracy'did not happen by chance.

Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government.