Power Sharing in the World's Largest Democracy: Informal Consociationalism in India (and Its Decline?)
Seminar
India is one of the most diverse countries of the world but operates with a majoritarian Westminster system and simple plurality, albeit also with a federal system. It was eventually coded as consociational by Arend Lijphart (1996) but this coding was questioned by authors such as Wilkinson (2000)…
Understanding Politics and Policy Making in the United States Congress Through Codified Law
Seminar
The United States Code, the official collection of general and permanent federal laws arranged by subject, provides a unique opportunity to gauge a number of different aspects of congressional lawmaking activity through its annual updates of individual provisions of laws. In this paper, we discuss…
NIMBYism and Public Bads
Seminar
Political philosophy typically assumes the sovereign state with jurisdiction over a large, usually national, territory, a focus that has recently been challenged by salutary calls to attend to the macro politics of the international order, or the micro politics of the family. However, still…
Women and Combat in World War II: the Anti-Female Combat Norm and Norm Change
Seminar
This paper considers a puzzle: why was there such considerable variation in ways in which the USSR, Great Britain, and Germany mobilized women during World War II? I argue that a very strong norm against the use of women in combat is essential in explaining this variation. In turn, understanding…
Predicting Low-Intensity Political Violence using Social Media
Seminar
The study of political violence is commonly concerned with understanding mass violence like civil war onset or rebellion. Such events are relatively easy to identify as common sources of textual data reliably report on their occurrence. Other types of conflict, however, may not rise to such a…
From Non-Interventionism to Interventionism: Explaining America's Foreign Affairs Agenda Since the Nineteenth Century
Seminar
Since the early 20th century, the United States of America has served as the backbone of the contemporary world order in which we live today. However, political scientists still have to travel a long road before understanding why the USA has come to move away from non-interventionism towards…
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet”?: Democracy in difficult contexts
Workshop
An interdisciplinary workshop with Professor Nic Cheeseman addressing democracy, governance, and human rights. Scholars, early career researchers, and post-graduate students are invited to join Visiting Fellow, Professor Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham) for a workshop exploring the…