Constitution-Making in Divided Societies: Lessons from the Turkish CRC Experience
Seminar
Inclusive negotiations between different segments of society are rare in Turkish constitutional history. However, between 2011 and 2013 the country made an attempt that diverged from this pattern. The Constitutional Reconciliation Commission (CRC), consisted of three representatives from each of…
Can Constitutional Reform Constrain Electoral Violence?
Seminar
Constitution-making is promoted as a means to encourage democratisation and peaceful politics. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating whether, and if so under which conditions, constitutional reform can induce such positive outcomes. This study suggests that constitutional reform can…
Indigenous Institutions and Varieties of Colonisation in the Neo-Europes
Seminar
A growing body of literature seeks to understand the deep historical roots of modern day political institutions. This literature initially focused on the long run impact of colonising states' institutions on those of their colonies. In recent years, however, more attention has been paid to the…
US Redistricting in Comparative Perspective
Seminar
While there are other countries, primarily English-speaking ones, which use first-past-the-post (plurality voting) in single-seat constituencies to elect representatives to the national parliament and other legislative bodies, redistricting in the U.S. differs from that in other countries in…
Toward a Theory and Measure of Racial Benevolence
Seminar
Most work on racial attitudes considers explicitly hostile outgroup evaluations. What about racial attitudes that appear subjectively positive but reinforce racial inequality more broadly? Research in social psychology shows that sexist attitudes are ambivalent; sexism can be hostile or benevolent…
Interpretive International Relations: Narrative and Explanation (Ian Hall, Griffith University)
Seminar
Interpretivists hold that the social world is a world of meaning. They maintain that social behaviour is best explained in terms of the meanings that actions have for the people who perform them. Interpretivists try to access those meanings – and thereby explain behaviour – by examining agents’…
Piracy, Punishment, and Structural Hermeneutics (Matt Norton, University of Oregon)
Seminar
Hermeneutics is one of the wellsprings of interpretive methods in contemporary social science. The space between biblical interpretation and the interpretation of social life, though, opens wide opportunities and demands for creative developments and elaborations to make hermeneutics a compelling…