CSD Conferences

The Center for the Study of Democracy sponsors research conferences on reform of democratic institutions and practices, democratic transitions, and other themes related to CSD's research foci in social movements, race and ethnicity, and the economics of governance.  Most of these conferences result in edited volumes. 

Sometimes we co-sponsor such conferences with other research centers both at UCI and elsewhere.  For example, CSD co-sponsored a 2008-9 conference at UCI on Race and Ethnicity with  the Politics of Race, Immigration, and Ethnicity Consortium  (PRIEC), in 2004-5 we sponsored a conference with the USC Initiative and Referendum Institute,  that resulted in an edited volume (S. Bowler and A. Glazer, eds. Direct Democracy's Impact on American Political Institutions. Palgrave Macillian, 2008).

Also, we have begun what we are referring to as “bi-coastal” conferences, the first of which  was co-organized with the University of Montreal, with one conference at UCI and a follow-up conference at the University of Montreal, with the two parts put together to form an edited book, Duverger's Law of Plurality Elections: Evidence from Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the U.S. that is being published by Springer-Verlag in 2009. A second bi-coastal conference, with Yale University, is set for fall 2009 at UCI, on "1989: The Fall of the Wall," with a follow-up conference at Yale in 2010.

2009-2010

1989: Twenty Years After Conference
The Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 signaled the termination of the Communist state and all its trappings in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and brought about the birth of something new across the region.  In China, the Tiananmen demonstrations in the spring of that year were capped by closure for regime change for some time to come. Yet enormous socio-economic changes have transformed the country. From our vantage point, 20 years later, we can see that change after 1989 has taken all manner of varying shapes. It is time to ask the big questions:  Just what have been the repercussions--politically, socially, culturally and economically of the post-1989 transformations?   And why has there been such divergence in outcomes among the affected countries? The conference will bring together 35 renowned senior and promising junior scholars to address these issues. November 5-8, 2009

Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Colloquium (PRIEC) Irvine
Research conference organized by Louis DeSipio and Carole Uhlaner. November 6, 2009

2008-2009

Citizens, Context, and Choice: How Institutional Structures Shape Citizen Behavior
This conference examines how the institutional context represented in the electoral system, party system and constitutional structures potentially shape citizen electoral behavior in contemporary democracies. It is based on cross-national analyses of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). The conference is hosted and funded by the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University with support from the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine. June 19-20, 2009

Reforming the French Presidential Election System: Experiments on Electoral Reform
Conference sponsored by the Jack W. Peltason (Bren Foundation) Chair and The Center for the Study of Democracy, UC Irvine, CEVIPOF, Sciences-Po,Paris, GAEL (l'Association francaise de Science politique). June 15-16, 2009

Democracy and its Development
5th annual graduate student research conference organized by Chairs, Louis DeSipio (Political Science), Belinda Robnett-Olsen (Sociology); Co-Chairs, Chris Stout, Kris Coulter, and Daisy Reyes (Social Science Graduate Students). May 9, 2009

Cultures of Democracy in the Americas
Interdisciplinary conference to explore how cultural diversity, audiovisual technologies, new urban configurations and unprecedented forms of political participation can change the ways in which we understand political processes, social mobilization and even traditional notions of democracy and people-hood.
Co-sponsored with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. April 10-11, 2009

Irvine-Japan Conference on Public Choice
5th annual conference organized by Amihai Glazer (Economics). March 4, 2009

PRIEC Irvine
Research conference organized by Louis DeSipio and Carole Uhlaner. July 24, 2008

2007-2008

Democracy and its Development
4th annual graduate student research conference organized by Chair, Yulia Tverdova (Political Science), Nina Bandelj (Sociology), Matt Beckmann (Political Science), David Meyer (Sociology).

2006-2007

Democracy and its Development
3rd annual graduate student research conference organized by Nina Bandelj (Sociology), Anthony McGann (Political Science), David Meyer (Sociology), and Yulia Tverdova (Political Science).

Theorizing Ways of Knowing: Beyond Interest
The Coast-to-Coast Inclusive Management Initiative workshop, co-sponsored with Newkirk Center, UCI; Center for Organized Research, UCI; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, National Capital Region. May 18-19, 2007

2005-2006

Democracy and its Development
Research conference organized by David Meyer, Anthony McGann, Yulia Tverdova, Carole Uhlaner,
and doctoral students Catherine Corrigall-Brown and Alix van Sickle.
Conference organizers: for proposals, log on here.

The Development of Electoral Democracy in East Asia
Research conference organized by Doh Chull Shin, Yun-Han Chu and Russell Dalton

Plurality and Multi-round Electoral Systems
Research conference organized by Bernie Grofman

The Politics of Special Interests
Research conference organized by Amihai Glazer

The Political Incorporation of Immigrants
Research conference organized by Louis DeSipio

Political Parties and Political Development
Research conference organized by Russell Dalton and Ian McAllister

2004-2005

The Politics of Veiling in Comparative Perspective
Research conference organized by Jen'nan Ghazal Read

Democracy and its Development: Graduate Student Research Conference
Research conference organized by Nina Bandelj, Anthony McGann and Carole Uhlaner

Taxation and Decentralization
Research conference organized by Amihai Glazer

The Greening XIV
Research conference organized by Newkirk Center, Center for the Study of Democracy, FRG in International Environmental Cooperation

The Impact of Direct Democracy
Research conference organized by Amihai Glazer and Shaun Bowler

Judging Transitional Justice
Research conference organized by Marek Kaminski and Monika Nalepa

Transnational Action in a Transnational World
Research conference organized by CSD, GPACS, et al.

2003-2004

Majoritarian and Runoff Electoral Systems
Research conference organized by Bernard Grofman, Shaun Bowler, and James Adams

Citizens, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim
Research conference organized by Russell Dalton and Doh Chull Shin

2002-2003

Development, Democracy and the Islamic World
Research conference organized by the Center for the Study of Democracy and Global Peace and Conflict Studies

Political Representation and Party Choice in the New EU
Research conference organized by Hans-Dieter Klingemann

Judgement Day and Beyond: The 2002 Bundestagswahl
Research conference organized by Robert Rohrschneider and Russell Dalton

The Transformation of Democratic Institutions
Research conference organized by Bruce Cain and Russell Dalton

2001-2002

The Politics of Corporate Governance
Research conference organized by Amihai Glazer

Social Movements, Public Policy, and Democracy
Research conference organized by Helen Ingram, Valerie Jenness and David Meyer

Comparative Redistricting Conference
Research conference organized by Bernard Grofman and Lisa Handley

2000-2001

Democracy, Violence, and Cities: New Segregations and Changes in Public Space
Research conference organized by Teresa Caldeira

Formal and Informal Institutions to Cope with Risk and Credit in Developing Countries
Research conference organized by Garance Genicot

Greening X: Environmental Politics and Policy
Research conference organized by Helen Ingram and Richard Matthew

1999-2000

The Future of American Democracy

1998-1999

Social Conflict and Economic Performance
Research conference organized by Sterios Skaperdas

Mixed Electoral Systems
Research conference organized by Matthew Shugart, Martin Wattenberg, and Stephen Levine

Unthinkable Democracy: Partisan Decline and Change
Research conference organized by Russell Dalton and Martin Wattenberg

1997-1998

Nordic Electoral Systems
Research conference organized by Bernard Grofman and Arend Lijphart

1996-1997

State and Sovereignty in the World Economy
Research conference organized by Dorothy Solinger, David Smith, and Steven Topik

The Greening VI
Research conference hosted by Russell Dalton and Helen Ingram

The Single Transferable Vote
Research conference organized by Bernard Grofman and Shaun Bowler

UC Irvine Center for the Study of Democracy