Keynote speakers:
Prof. Dr. Ulrich von Alemann
Prof. Dr. Martin Morlok
Prof. Dr. Thomas Poguntke
Deadline for abstract / panel submission: Sunday, 15th August 2010
The conference represents an excellent opportunity for post-graduate students to come together from all over Europe in order to present and discuss their research on political parties – related issues.
A democratic state is characterised by the ability of its citizens to formulate preferences, communicate them to the government, have these preferences weighed equally and eventually realised. The agents and framework for these purposes are made up of political parties and party systems, which will therefore be at the centre of this academic event. Thus the conference format will consist of themed panels touching upon the following, and related aspects which help to obtain new insights into the nature and activities of political parties:
Party structure and organization: formation, types, internal dynamics and interaction patterns of the party groups;
Political theory and political parties: revisiting the applicability of already existing concepts and developing new methodological approaches;
Europe´s social democracy: the current state and ways out of the crises. What accounts for differences in these parties´ electoral results in Western, Central and Eastern Europe?;
Elections, voter participation and activism: what are the ways of increasing popular participation and bringing parties back into the public domain in the face of voter de-alignment, checkbook voting, etc.?;
Eurosceptic and extremist parties and the role of religion in political discourses and outcomes;
Media, political communication and party campaigns: how is politics reproduced in the media? To what degree can politicians use it for their purposes and eventually misuse?;
The role of political parties in European governance: problems of representation and accountability. Legitimacy deficits – what can be done about them?;
Leadership, followers and political psychology: personality, charisma, political ambition and motives, image marketing, political rhetoric, emotions. How can citizens make sense of the political world?;
Corruption, lobbying and party funding: where is a crossing line between democratic processes and destructive opportunism?;
Authoritarianism and its formula of success: what are the constitutional arrangements and party system implications? The democratic rule is a matter of definition and degree, but still, is there an ideal executive-legislative relationship?;
Post-Communist politics: party building and party system institutionalisation in post-authoritarian states. Which changes took place since the early days of Perestroika? Do East European parties follow the patterns of their Western counterparts? What factors account for eventual divergence? What is a balance between the path dependency and innovation in their development?;
The relationship between political parties and civil society actors: political opportunity structure of the parties, social movements and the nature of contentious politics require thorough examination. Who do these organisations represent? Are they elitist or democratic? Do they actually reflect public opinion?;
New media and electoral participation: how new technologies reshape political activity by altering the cost structure and the spectrum of political engagement? What is the impact of the Internet on political attitudes, mobilization, party politics and new online political activities?;
Politics tend to dominate virtually all aspects of human activity and the relationship between political actors such as parties, institutions and electorates shapes the nature of democratic governance. Against this backdrop the conference purpose is to examine theories, case studies and research methods of political science and especially party politics.
There is considerable merit in facilitating a theoretically informed debate between various perspectives, rather than seeking to arrive at uniform solutions. Therefore preference will be given to papers that deliberately combine theory and evidence from a comparative perspective. Graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students are welcome to submit the results of their current research on political issues of sub-national, national and supra-national level.
The keynote lectures will be delivered by renowned professors and panels chaired by experienced researchers. Participants will have to cover their expenses, though the organizers are looking for funds in order to contribute towards some presenters´ costs. One-page abstracts and / or panel proposals are solicited till Sunday, 15th August 2010 to the following e-mail: aegcpp2011@googlemail.com. A publication comprising best papers is also envisaged. Language: English. For further information please contact AEGCPP 2011 academic convenor Alex Svetlov aegcpp2011@googlemail.com. Website: http://politics.ucoz.org. For previous conferences: http://www.aegcpp.org.uk
Please quote 10 Academic Resources Daily in your application to this opportunity!
