The research group "Democracy, Elections and Citizenship" presents the seminar

"Motives and Opportunity: The Nature and Sources of Party Stances on the Performance of Democracies in Europe"

by Prof. Robert Rohrschneider (Univeristy of Kansas)

Date: 23th of July 2013  h11.30
Venue: Sala de juntes, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

How do political parties evaluate the performance of democracies in Europe? Many studies show that citizens hold critical views about the performance of western democracies, we know little about the choice parties offer to critical citizens. Accordingly, a first goal is to describe how parties evaluate the performance of existing national systems. We then theorize that two kinds of motives underlie party evaluations of regimes. First, assuming that parties want to become elected, we argue that their electoral potential influences their stances on existing institutions (greater potential boosting evaluations). Second, we suggest that the symbiotic evolution of mass organizations and liberal democracies—parties’ democratic legacy—entails that mass parties, on average, are particularly positive about the performance of democracies (assuming they work well). We use an expert survey conducted in 2007-2008 covering 24 EU democracies to test six hypotheses. The results show point to the relevance of mass organizations as a bulwark for liberal democracies when these institutions work well (mostly in North-Western Europe) but not elsewhere. Theoretically, the findings point to (1) the lasting legacy of mass party organizations for the stability of well-functioning regimes; (2) the potentially volatile consequences of poorly functioning regimes in CEE and Southern Europe where parties have incentives to change regimes without having a long-standing democratic legacy.

Elections, Democracy and Citizenship Research Group

"CITIZEN RESPONSES TO POLITICAL CORRUPTION: ELECTIONS AND ACCOUNTABILITY" 

This workshop aims at putting toghether scholars from different disciplines and perspectives that deal with the topic of how, and under what conditions citizens react to political corruption. We will discuss both experimental and observational research, case studies as well as comparative work.

Date: Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

Venue: Sala de juntes, Facultat de Ciències Polítiques i Sociologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Registration: Participation is open and free, but prior registration is strongly encouraged. Here you will find the registration form

Programme:

9:00-10:00

Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro (Brown University) and Matthew S. Winters (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign): "Politician Performance and  Partisan Engagement:The Unexpected Consequences of Corruption"

10:00-11:00

Albert Sole-Olle and Pilar Sorribas-Navarro (IEB-UB) "Does Exposure to Corruption Erode Trust in Goverment? Evidence from a Matched Sample  of Local Scandals in Spain"

11:00-11:30 – Coffee break

11:30-12:30

Jordi Muñoz (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Eva Anduiza (UAB)  and Aina Gallego (IPP-CSIC) "Why do Voters Forgive Corrupt  Politicians? Cynicism, Noise and Implicit Exchange"

12:30-13:30

Pablo Simón and Marc Guinjoan (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) "The Combined Effect of Competitiveness and the Number of Parties: Addressing the Determinants of Corruption in SMD Countries"

13:30-15:00 - Lunch

15:00-16:00

Jordi Muñoz (UAB) and Peter Essaiason (University of Gothenburg) "Perceptions of Incumbent Competence and Electoral Punishment of Corruption. An Experimental Comparison between Sweden and Spain"

16:00-17:00

Maria Solevid and Stefan Dahlberg (University of Gothenburg) "Does Corruption Suppress Turnout? A Multi-level Approach."

17:00-17:30

Concluding discussion

Marta Fraile and Sergi Pardos-Prado (forthcoming) “The Correspondence between the Objective and the Subjective Economies: the Role of Personal Economic Circumstances”, Political Studies.

Bram Lancee and Sergi Pardos-Prado (2013) “Group Conflict Theory in a Longitudinal Perspective: Analysing the Dynamic Side of Ethnic Competition”, International Migration Review, 47(1): 106-131.

Fuster Morell, M. & Subirats, J. (2013, April). Gobierno abierto y políticas publicas. Los dilemas de un proceso inevitable. Telos cuadernos de comunicación e innovación. Fundación Telefónica. Numero 94.

Fuster Morell, M. (2012). Composition of 15M Mobilization in Spain: Free Culture Movement a layer of 15M ecosystem movement. ‘Occupy’ special edition. Social Movement Studies,Volume 11, Issue 3-4.

R. Borge, A.S. Cardenal & C. Malpica (2012) “El impacto de Internet en la participación política: revisando el papel del interés político”. ARBOR, Vol. 188, n. 756, pp. 733-750.

"Las consecuencias electorales del 15M en las elecciones generales de 2011", by Eva Anduiza (UAB), Irene Martín (UAM) and Araceli Mateos (USAL). 

 (in Spanish)

Digital Media and Political Engagement Worldwide A Comparative Study   Edited by: Eva Anduiza, Michael James Jensen & Laia Jorba, Autonomous University of Barcelona

This book focuses on the impact of digital media use for political engagement across varied geographic and political contexts, using a diversity of methodological approaches and datasets. The book addresses an important gap in the contemporary literature on digital politics, identifying context dependent and transcendent political consequences of digital media use. While the majority of the empirical work in this field has been based on studies from the United States and United Kingdom, this volume seeks to place those results into comparative relief with other regions of the world. It moves debates in this field of study forward by identifying system-level attributes that shape digital political engagement across a wide variety of contexts. The volume brings together research and scholars from North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. The evidence analyzed across the fifteen cases considered in the book suggests that engagement with digital environments influences users' political orientations and that contextual features play a significant role in shaping digital politics.