Why parité is a better goal than quotas

Abstract

Quotas, parité, and proportional representation have been the main strategies for redressing injustice in political representation, as well as for amending women ' s under-representation. These strategies are an explicit recognition that representation is both a democratic value and a form of participation. The search for strategies of redress is undoubtedly an important fact that testifi es to a change in women ' s attitude toward representative politics as no longer a target of mistrust in the name of direct participation. This article advocates making parité the general criterion for justice in representation as the best rendering of the peculiarity of women in political representation.