Since the founding of the modern Turkish republic in 1923, Turkey's political leaders have been decisive in shaping the development of their country's democratic patterns and processes. Beginning with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Political Leaders and Democracy in Turkey analyzes the origins, political careers, beliefs, and policies of eleven of modern-day Turkey's most influential leaders. The chapters offer a unique perspective into the complex and fascinating world of Turkish political leadership and the transition to, and consolidation of, democracy. This crucial addition to Turkish studies and comparative politics is the first book to undertake a systematic study of the role political leaders have played in shaping the successes, as well as the shortcomings, of Turkey's grand democratic experiment.

This collection of eighteen articles shows how conceptions of the political are expanded and revised when viewed through the lens of gender. Carefully organized to serve scholars and students across the social sciences, this book reexamines such basic notions as citizenship, collectivity, political resistance, and the state, drawing on examples with important historical and national variations.
Section One, "Gender, Citizenship, and Collectivity," includes Nancy Frazer and Linda Gordon's critique of dependency and citizenship; Iris Young on women as a social collective; Ruth Bloch on the feminization of public virtue in revolutionary America; Trisha Franzen on feminism and lesbian community, and Sonia Kruks on de Beauvoir and contemporary feminism.
"Collective Action and Women's Resistance," Section Two, features Louis Tilly's "Paths of Proletarianization"; Temma Kaplan's "Female Consciousness and Collective Action"; and five assessments of women's collective action worldwide: Samira Haj on Palestine, Arlene McLeod on Egypt, Gay Seidman on South Africa, Nancy Sternbach "et al." on Latin America, and Anne Walthall on Japan.
Concluding with a section on gender and the state, "Rethinking the Political" also features Bronwyn Winter on the law and cultural relativism; Sherene Razack on sexual violence; Wendy Luttrell on educational institutions; Patricia Stamp on ethnic conflict in postcolonial Kenya; Elizabeth Schmidt on patriarchy and capitalism in Zimbabwe; and Muriel Nazzari on the "woman question" in post-revolutionary Cuba.