Lecture in Freiburg: Jun-Prof. Jelena von Achenbach (Giessen) speaks on gender and democratic representation under the Basic Law. Mon, 13.01.20, 18h ct
Automatically translated without proofreading
The Dissolution of the Liberal Consensus - Lecture Series on Critical Legal Theory
We are very much looking forward to the exciting lecture and workshop by Jun. Prof. Dr. Jelena von Achenbach, LL.M., who will analyse and criticise a current political and legal dispute about gender parity in electoral law, thus making critical feminist legal theory practical.
Monday, 13.01.20, 6 pm c.t., Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16
In all German parliaments the elected representatives are predominantly men. In Baden-Wuerttemberg the proportion of men in the state parliament is 75.5 percent. In the Bundestag it is 68.7 percent. Against this background, can and should all parties be obliged by law to nominate as many women as men for elections (“parity”)? This is very controversial in Germany at both federal and state level. In the lecture and workshop, this dispute about parity provides the material for discussing what unequal gender relations in parliaments mean for the democratic quality of political representation. This is a normative, democracy-theoretical and at the same time a legal question. For it directly concerns the central democratic principles of the constitution: political equality and freedom, representative democracy and the openness of the democratic process. The dispute about unequal gender relations in the German parliaments and parity revolves essentially around whether the constitutional principles have critical, progressive significance. Or do they instead legitimise and preserve the status quo as formal principles (“The members of the Bundestag are representatives of the whole people.”)?
Workshop on 14.01.20, 9am s.t. - 12pm s.t.
In the workshop we will have the opportunity for intensive discussion based on texts. It will be about a currently running procedure, whose material we analysed and theoretically reflect. The texts will be sent out with the registration, which should be done until 07.01.20 at sekretariat.riescher@politik.uni-freiburg.de.
More about the lecture series
Further dates and background information can be found here
The lecture series is organized by Karsten Schubert with the support of the Team of the Chair of Political Theory, Philosophy and History of Ideas of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and in cooperation with the Freiburg Colloquium politicum.
Related Posts
- CfP: Special Issue 'The Dissolution of the Liberal Consensus' of the Journal of Political Theory (ZPTh), 18. January 2021
- Audio online: Jelena von Achenbach (Giessen) explains the constitutional reasons for the Brandenburg Parity Law and why gender is a special factor of democratic representation under the German Basic Law, 20. August 2020
- Lecture in Freiburg: Prof. Elisabeth Holzleithner (Vienna) speaks on crises of the liberal constitutional state. On the question of fear. Mon, 27.01.20, 18h ct, 20. January 2020
- Lecture in Freiburg: Dr. Svenja Ahlhaus (Hamburg) talks about democracy, borders and membership. Tue, 26.11.19, 18h, 18. November 2019
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