Can China Democratise?
Seminar
These are dark days for advocates of democracy in China. Crackdowns against freedoms of speech, assembly, and thought have intensified under President Xi Jinping, while Western governments are increasingly muted in their response. This makes it even more important to discuss openly the subject of…
Mass Media as a Source of Public Responsiveness
Seminar
There is a sizable literature finding evidence of public responsiveness to policy change, across a range of salient policy domains and countries. We have a very limited sense for what drives this aggregate-level responsiveness, however. One possibility is that individuals learn at least part of…
Fifth European Conference on Politics and Gender at Lausanne
Conference
For the Fifth European Conference on Politics and Gender at Lausanne, June 2017 there are two GenParlNet panels. Jennifer Piscopo has organised a panel with five papers: 'Theorising Gender-Focused Parliamentary Bodies: The Causes and Consequences of Institutional Design'. Mette Marie Harders and…
Compulsory Voting Rules, Reluctant Voters and Ideological Proximity Voting
Lecture
Political theorists have argued that democracies should strive for high turnout, leading to an argument for the introduction of compulsory voting, one of the surest ways to increase turnout. Others have warned that this obligation comes at a cost of lower quality votes. We investigate these claims…
Populism and Press Freedom
Lecture
What is the relationship between populist rule and the freedom of the press? Populists are personalistic leaders who seek to gain and retain power by establishing unmediated links with mass constituencies, who are otherwise relatively free of existing party and institutional ties. Populists rely…
Gender, Anxiety, and Attitudes to Terrorism
Lecture
Social dominance orientation (SDO) measures individuals’ preference for inter-group hierarchies; that is, the idea that some groups in society should rightly dominate other groups. This study examines the role of SDO in explaining anxiety about experiencing a terrorist attack, and support for…
Pork is Policy: Dissipative Inclusion at Local Level
Lecture
This paper investigates, in subnational comparative perspective, the impact of local public policies on several indicators of the quality of life, poverty, and inequality. This is a first attempt to investigate the role of the legislative branch in fighting poverty and inequality through targeted…