The Canadian Women Voters Congress is a non-partisan, charitable organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia that offers Canada's longest running female Campaign school as well as hosts many talks, workshops, and events with the purpose of empowering women into participating in democracy. [1]
Audrey Paterson was the catalyst of the congress and founder along with Kathryn Sainty and Helen Wilkes. Joanne Silver was the first Chair of the Women's Campaign School which began in 1999. Since it opened its doors, more than 450 women have benefitted from the program, many of whom have been elected for public office. Audrey died in 2010.
Both Jaquetta Newman and Sylvia Bashevkin note the importance as well as lack of female politicians in Canada. In Newman's book Women, Politics, and Public Policy, the topic of policing the female body is introduced and understood in terms of gender exclusions in politics. Providing background in feminist movements, Newman explains that the female body is held to a standard of feminization and thus rejected of legitimacy when diverted. [2]
Basevkin's book Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada's Unfinished Democracy discusses female politicians from the viewpoint of society. Terming female leaders as components of the discomfort zone, [3] where citizens, journalists, media, and other politicians will pick apart aspects of female politicians until there is nothing left but to deem her unsuitable for the job.
Organizations and schools such as the Canadian Women Voters Congress are integral in mobilizing females to participate in democracy and strive for public office.
A political party is an organized group of people who have the same ideology, or who otherwise have the same political positions, and who field candidates for elections, in an attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party's agenda. They are a defining element of representative democracy.
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States, Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an office in government. Politicians propose, support and create laws or policies that govern the land and, by extension, its people. Broadly speaking, a "politician" can be anyone who seeks to achieve political power in any bureaucratic institution.
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which people decide on policy initiatives directly. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are representative democracies. The theory and practice of direct democracy and participation as its common characteristic was the core of work of many theorists, philosophers and politicians, among whom the most important are Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, and G.D.H. Cole.
In ethics and governance, accountability is answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, nonprofit and private (corporate) and individual contexts. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences.
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environment candidates." The organization pursues its goals through voter education, voter mobilization, and direct contributions to political candidates. LCV includes 29 state affiliates. LCV was founded in 1970 by environmentalist Marion Edey, with support from David Brower. The group's current president is Gene Karpinski. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has over two million members.
Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias toward, a political party.
Elections in Cuba involve nomination of municipal candidates by voters in open ballot nomination assemblies, nomination of provincial and national candidates by candidacy commissions, voting by secret ballot, and recall elections. Under the national constitution, Cuba is a socialist democracy, with the Communist Party of Cuba as the "leading force of society and of the state", although elections are nominally non-partisan.
Political representation is the activity of making citizens "present" in public policy making processes when political actors act in the best interest of citizens. This definition of political representation is consistent with a wide variety of views on what representing implies and what the duties of representatives are. For example, representing may imply acting on the expressed wishes of citizens, but it may alternatively imply acting according to what the representatives themselves judge is in the best interests of citizens. And representatives may be viewed as individuals who have been authorized to act on the behalf of others, or may alternatively be viewed as those who will be held to account by those they are representing. Political representation can happen along different units such as social groups and area, and there are different types of representation such as substantive representation and descriptive representation.
Gender representation has been a significant issue in Canadian politics.
James Allen Thurber is University Distinguished Professor of Government and Founder (1979) and Former Director (1979-2016) of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (american.edu/spa/ccps) and Affiliate Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Policy at American University, Washington, D.C. He is author or editor of numerous books and more than 90 articles and chapters on Congress, the U.S. presidency, interest groups and lobbying, and campaigns and elections. His four most recent books are: Campaigns and Elections, American Style, Congress and Diaspora Politics: The Influence of Ethnic and Foreign Lobbying , American Gridlock: The Sources, Character and Impact of Political Polarization and Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations (2017, 6th Ed.). He is also an author or editor of Obama in Office (2011), Congress and the Internet, The Battle for Congress: Consultants, Candidates, and Voters (2001), Crowded Airwaves: Campaign Advertising in Elections, Campaign Warriors: Political Consultants in Elections (2000), Remaking Congress: The Politics of Congressional Stability and Change, Divided Democracy: Cooperation and Conflict Between Presidents and Congress (1991), and Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School is a non-partisan law and public policy institute that is sometimes seen as liberal or progressive. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan.
Women in government are underrepresented in most, if not all, countries worldwide. In many countries, women have had inadequate opportunities in social participation, especially in striving for political rights and power in the government and different institutions. This historical tendency still persists, although women are increasingly being elected to be heads of state and government.
Electoral reform in the United States refers to efforts to change American elections and the electoral system used in the United States.
Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. Politics consists of "social relations involving authority or power. The definition of "politics" from "The Free Dictionary" is the study of political behavior and examines the acquisition and application of power. Politics study include political philosophy, which seeks a rationale for politics and an ethic of public behavior, and public administration, which examines the practices of governance.
In governance, sortition is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates. Filling individual posts or, more usually in its modern applications, to fill collegiate chambers. The system intends to ensure that all competent and interested parties have an equal chance of holding public office. It also minimizes factionalism, since there would be no point making promises to win over key constituencies if one was to be chosen by lot, while elections, by contrast, foster it. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to politics and political science:
Sanford "Sandy" Newman is an American non-profit executive. Between 1982 and 2017, he founded and served as president of three non-profits, Project VOTE! Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, and Voices for Progress.
Anita Vandenbeld is a Canadian politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Ottawa West—Nepean for the Liberal Party of Canada in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election. She was re-elected in the same riding in 2019. She is now the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.
Sylvia Beth Bashevkin, is Canadian academic and writer known for her research in the field of women and politics.
