ABSTRACT
The title of this study, The Gender of Democracy, may be regarded as a contradiction in terms: democracy, in all the various conceptions concerning it, is by definition a system in which the notion of citizenship is conceived beyond any individual particularities and differences.1 Furthermore, on the level of society, democracy today as an idea aims at the invalidation of inequalities in the access to political processes resulting from the specific conditions of each citizen, and is also in theory characterized by its respect for the personal freedom of individuals to realize themselves, and thus for their differences. We may refer to democracy as a system of government and a sum total of processes or as an issue for society and an ideal to which we aspire. In all cases, be it liberal,2 socialist or radical,3 democracy is theoretically committed to an indifference towards any special characteristics of “free and equal” citizens. On the basis of their quality as such, citizens constitute the people whose consensus is the prerequisite for the legitimation of a democratically elected government and of the whole political system. How, then, could democracy have a gender?4
