Contemporary democratic theories, such as Jacques Rancière’s conception of politics or Chantal Mouffes’ discussion on democratic citizenship, emphasise the political subjectivation of the demos (Rancière) and the creation of political identity of the people (Mouffe). While Mouffe does not address this difference, Rancière distinguishes between the philosophical conception of the demos and the sociological conception of the people. However, both obscure the gendered construction of the demos/people. The aim of the paper is to trace these gendered constructions in conceptions of democracy and to decipher them as rhetorical strategies. Moreover, a perspective on gendered constructions of the demos intents to go beyond the feminist critique of androcentric conceptions of the citizen (equal, individual, a-sexual, abstract) by focussing on power, inequality, and hierarchy in gender relations mirrored in discourse and rhetoric. We argue that parliamentary debates do not simply refer to the sociological people, but do also reflect the philosophical demos according to Rancière by applying a rhetorical logos which can be deconstructed as intrinsically gendered.
Taking Austria as an example, we will show by means of analyses of selected parliamentary debates on the integration of former Nazis into Austrian citizenship 1945-1949 that an irritation of gender hierarchy makes the patriarchal construction of the demos visible. After World War II the former members of the National-socialist party were excluded from citizenship, which resulted in the fact that the majority of the electorate in 1945 was female. At the same time, Austrian national self-understanding as the first victim of Hitlerite aggression challenged traditional victim-perpetrator connotations. Moreover, democracy was effeminate. In parliamentary debates on the integration of the former Nazis reconfigurations of the patriarchal demos and nation were negotiated.
