Political support model among women : a case study at the northern states in Malaysia / Nazni Noordin

The study of political support has traditionally been considered as central to the analysis of political processes and, especially, of democratic political systems. Even if citizens’ participation in their self-government is the defining feature of democratic systems, there are several and differing understandings of which should be the real degree of citizens’ involvement in government. Thus, there is no consensus around which is the most adequate level of citizen participation in the government of the polity for a good functioning of democracy.
Recent decades have witnessed growing demands for the inclusion and empowerment of women and minorities in elected office. Feminist theorists suggest that the presence of women leaders facilitates the articulation of different perspectives on political issues, where elected representatives are not just 'standing as’ women but also 'acting for’ women as a group. If so, then the under-representation of women in parliament may have important consequences for the public policy agenda and for the articulation of women’s interests, as well as for the legitimacy of democratic bodies. Inclusiveness is widely regarded as one of the key values of democratic politics, so that all major social cleavages have a voice in the policy making process, whether the politically relevant groups are defined by gender, ethnicity, region, socio economic status, age, or education.