WOMEN AND DEMOCRATIZATION - CONCEPTUALIZING GENDER RELATIONS IN TRANSITION POLITICS

This article examines the impact of gender relations on democratizatio n. It considers a number of key questions: what role do women's moveme nts play in the transition to democratic rule and what impact does a r eturn to competitive electoral politics have on women and women's move ments. The starting point is a critique of the existing literature on democratization. That literature cannot provide a satisfactory analysi s of the role of women in transition politics because of the narrow de finitions of democracy used and the top-down focus of much of it. The article then develops a gendered analysis through a comparison of the different processes of transition in Latin America and Central and Eas tern Europe. It highlights the significance of the relationship betwee n civil society and the state and the existence of ''political space.' '