University of Bath PHD Democratic Practice and Policymaking at the Regional Level in Europe, Testing the Gender and Diversity Agenda Legg, Joanna Award date: 2014 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 Democratic practice and policymaking at the regional level in Europe, testing the gender and diversity agenda Submitted by Joanna May Legg For the degree of PhD University of Bath Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies June 2014 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author. A copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that they must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author. RESTRICTIONS ON USE This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Before going any further, I want to say thank you to the following people for the contribution they’ve made to this thesis. It makes me particularly happy that they finally get the chance to come first, because so often over the past five years they’ve put me there instead. To my supervisors, Dr. Hanna Diamond and Prof. Anna Bull, I want to say the biggest thank you for your unwavering support, patience and encouragement. Your judgement and insight have been matchless, and I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with you both. Hanna, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to have taken up the challenge had it not been for you, and Anna, your guidance has been instrumental in getting me through. You’ve both always known when I needed some help and been able to spur me on. To Jax, for putting and keeping me together. To Rosa, my friend, one-time housemate and the only other person I know who is comfortable – indeed borderline delighted – discussing gender and new institutionalism over breakfast, lunch and dinner, I want to say that you’ve been an inspiration, and I wouldn’t have made it without your pep talks, confidence boosts, and friendship. You’ve been incredibly generous with me, so thank you. To my friends Kate J, Cat and Sarah, I want to say thank you for your support, patience and forgiveness, particularly on those (many) occasions where I’ve turned up late or left early, pleading PhD. I love you all very much and I won’t ever forget how well you’ve looked after me. I want to say thank you to my office-mates and fellow thesis-writers, Marianne, Claire, Brett, Christos, El and Kate H for the tea, encouragement and advice. And I couldn’t have completed the project without all those participants who gave up their time to help me in the archive, to meet me for an interview, or for follow up questions and correspondence, so I’d like to thank them, too. I’d also like to acknowledge the financial support that the ESRC provided. To all the incredible women in my family – thank you. To my stepmother, Jane, for taking care of me over the past five years and many more before that. To my sisters, Charlotte, Olivia and Caroline: you inspire me constantly with your achievements and have motivated me more than you’ll know with your support. To my Grandma and my Aunt, Jill, for your belief in me and for the steady stream of cake which has helped me through the darker days of this project. And finally, to my Dad. You’ve always been there to support and guide me in everything I do. This is dedicated to you ABSTRACT This thesis explores whether and how the substantive representation of women has been enabled or constrained by specific features of the gendered institutional context during domestic abuse policy development in two new regional legislatures, in Wales and in Tuscany. The thesis uses a sociological institutionalist approach to explore the involvement of civil society women’s organisations in the everyday processes of domestic abuse policy development across the case study regions. Both regions are structured by uniquely advanced formal rules committing to the inclusion of civil society organisations and to the value of gender equality. A critical discourse analytic approach is used to investigate how pre-existing informal norms and discursive frames interact with these formal rules in shaping actors’ behaviour and the policy solutions proposed to tackle domestic abuse. Feminist political science scholars have hypothesised that changes in the political environment across the European Union, including decentralisation and the devolution of power to the sub-national level, have generated new institutions which may provide greater opportunities for actors making claims for women to participate in the policy process and to influence its outputs, thus improving the substantive representation of women. However, this thesis argues that in the case of domestic abuse policy development, new formal rules making a symbolic commitment to the inclusion of new actors in governing processes were often undermined by tenacious informal norms. Women’s organisations that were better equipped to play by pre-existing informal rules were more likely to be included. This thesis makes a contribution to theory-building in the field of feminist political science through an exploration of the nuanced effects of new governing structures on the participation of value-driven women’s organisations in policy development. It shows how gendered, culturally dominant discursive frames and wider, pre-existing norms shaping perceptions of appropriate behaviour can affect women’s organisations’ opportunities for action in the policy process, and their capacity to influence outputs TABLE OF CONTENTS List of abbreviations used 5 List of figures 7 Introduction 8 Chapter 1. The substantive representation of women: why institutions matter 12 1.1. Introduction 12 1.2. Sex, gender and the under-representation of women in the formal political sphere 12 1.2.1. The substantive representation of women 17 1.3. Formal political institutions in a context of transformation 24 1.4. Sociological institutionalism – gendered analyses 27 1.5. Research questions 35 1.6. Conclusion 36 Chapter 2. Case studies and context: new institutions in a reshaped political environment 37 2.1. Introduction 37 2.2. The opening up of governing structures – transformations in the political environment 37 2.3. Altering the opportunity structure – decentralization, devolution and Federalisation 41 2.4. Encouraging the participation on non-state actors in civil society 45 2.5. Tensions inherent in top-down efforts to include civil society organizations 49 2.6. Questions from the perspective of FPS – what do these changes mean for the SRW? 51 2.7. Case study selection – innovative regional assemblies formally committed to inclusion and gender equality 53 2.7.1. The Welsh Case 55 2.7.2. The Tuscan Case 58 2.7.3. Critical cases 61 1 2.8. Conclusion 63 Chapter 3. Research design and methodology 64 3.1. Introduction 64 3.2. Conceptual framework 65 3.3. Research design – justification and challenges 68 3.3.1. Case study selection 68 3.3.2. Policy case study selection – domestic abuse as a particular interest for the SRW 70 3.4. Methodology and methods 74 3.4.1. Methodological approach – critical discourse analysis 74 3.4.2. Fieldwork 78 3.4.3. Methods 80 3.4.3.1. Documentary analysis 80 3.4.2.2. Interviews with key actors 84 3.5. Conclusion 87 Chapter 4. Out with the old and in with the new? Rules, norms, and discursive structures mediating the substantive representation of women 88 4.1. Introduction 88 4.2. Discourse on domestic abuse – a gendered issue? 92 4.2.1. Discourse on domestic abuse as a policy problem in the NAW 92 4.2.1.1. The 2005 strategy 92 4.2.1.2. The 2010 strategy 102 4.2.2. Discourse on domestic abuse as a policy problem in the Consiglio 111 4.2.3. Discourse on domestic abuse in Welsh women’s organisations 123 4.2.4. Discourse on domestic abuse in Tuscan women’s organisations 131 4.3. Domestic abuse on the agenda: two gender neutral representations 138 4.4. Conclusion – norms and discursive frames beyond problem representation 146 Chapter 5. Participation in policy formulation: gendered patterns of inclusions and exclusion 148 5.1. Introduction 148 5.2. Policy formulation – consultation, scrutiny and debate 151 2 5.3. Engaging women’s organisations – passive or active participation? 152 5.3.1. Policy formulation in Wales 152 5.3.1.1. Consultation on the 2005 strategy 152 5.3.1.2. The 2008 Communities and Culture Committee inquiry 155 5.3.1.3.