fraught for a single central authority ; thus the United Kingdom may been route
to federalism in granting varying degrees of autonomy to Wales and Scotland.
There is no historical example, however, of a federal state being turned
peacefully and successfully into a unitary one.
Federalists
‘Federalist’ may be used as a general term for those who favour a federal system
of government (see federalism). More narrowly the term refers to an
American political faction or party which emerged at the beginning of the
Republic’s history and advocated a strong national government for the USA.
Its main strength lay in the North, and its emphasis on the need for commercial
expansion made it the natural party of the trading and manufacturing classes. Its
opponents advocated a weaker role for the national governmentvis-a`-visthe
states, and were supported by agricultural interests. The Federalist Party was
dominant during the administrations of George Washington and John Adams
(1789–1801), but after Thomas Jefferson’s election to the presidency in 1800,
the Federalists declined, and the party ceased to be important.
Feminism
The modern feminist movement stems from the middle of the 1960s in North
America, and perhaps a little later in Europe, although important political
feminist activities (for example, the Suffragette movement in Britain and the
League of Woman Voters in the US) long pre-date the contemporary phe-
nomenon. There is no single political doctrine of feminismper se, and the
various groups and currents of thought among feminists are often in bitter
disagreement. Basically the movement seeks equal political and social rights for
women as compared with men. The main common theoretical assumption
which is shared by all branches of the movement is that there has been an
historical tradition of male exploitation of women, stemming originally from
the sexual differences which led to a division of labour, as, for example, in
child-rearing practices.
The actual policies pursued by feminists vary from the legalistic, in demand-
ingequality of opportunityand a ceasing of sexualdiscriminationin, for
example, employment policies and wage rates, through demands for facilities
such as free day-nurseries to remove disadvantages to women in the job
market, ultimately to demands foraffirmative actionor positive discrimina-
tion. Feminist issues are generally best promoted by relevantpressure groups,
although there are women’s political parties in Colombia and Iceland, the latter
having received over 10% of the votes cast in a general election. Although
female politicians have become increasingly prominent, the number of women
Federalists