An analysis of the concept representation and more precisely of the theoretical normative plea for enhanced representativeness in terms of socio-demographic features, translated as the request for the representation of social groups on the grounds of features such as etnicity, sex, age, etc, and of the techniques meant to facilitate or even guarantee the political representation of particular social groups, in order to confront the theory and the in Belgium existing techniques. An evaluation of the Belgian 1994 gender quota law Smet-Tobback, and more precisely an analysis of its impact on both the structural and the individual position of female representatives, in order to establish to what degree this law is an adequate tool in order to raise the share of female incumbents and how it should eventually be revised. Poirier Johanne 1. The role and status of intergovernmental agreements in federal systems 2. Social policy and federalism 3.
Ethnic nationalism presupposes that nations are composed of ethnic groups.
Membership to the nation is based on primordial criteria such as common descent, language and religion. Civic nationalism takes the nation as a political community constituted of individuals sharing common values, institutions and social patterns of interaction. Most studies on nationalism suggest that national identities retain through time their basic civic or ethnic characteristics. But recent political developments in federated states, such as Quebec, or in de facto independent states such as Taiwan demonstrate a possible shift in the national consciousness from an ethnic to a more civic type, at least on the elite level. My research project aims to examine whether and how such a shift has taken place in the two cases and to analyse its consequences for public policy making.