Introduction
In their attempt to identify appropriate research approaches in politics, feminists have often criticized traditional social science methodologies. In her article on women and democracy and the patriarchal welfare state, Carole Pateman raises the issue of the highly patriarchal political scene. She indicates that the positive and social democratic perspective is that a welfare state provides social meaning and equal worth to the political and juridical rights of all citizens. A second, more pessimistic, view on the welfare state, according to Pateman (1987) is that it provides the government with new approaches to exercising power over and governing the ...