Gendered advocacy coalitions and the Istanbul Convention: a comparative analysis of Bulgaria and Poland

Abstract

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention or IC, is a contested issue in Central and Eastern Europe. This article investigates this matter further by focusing specifically on Bulgaria and Poland using the most similar systems design; the former country has not ratified the convention, but the latter has. In this article, we draw on the literature on gender politics and public policy and on law and society studies to refine the advocacy coalition framework and propose a novel perspective on (non-)ratification that accentuates the role of anti-gender and feminist advocacy coalitions. Specifically, this article links the (non-)ratification of the IC to the complex modes of interaction between partisan, societal, and legal actors who make up adversarial advocacy coalitions. This article also highlights that deep core beliefs widen the cultural cleavage, with the traditional being pitted against the feminist in this case, thereby instigating “culture wars” in both countries.