Upcoming Events

Hannah Arendt in America: The Company She Kept and How She Grew

Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott

University of Michigan

Friday, November 20th, 3pm , Department of Political Science, Scott Hall 2nd floor, Ripton Room 201, 601 University Place, Evanston, IL 60208

Co-sponsored by Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy 

Light refreshments will be served !

_________________________________________________________________________________

Lawfare: The Formation and Deformation of
Gacaca Jurisdictions in Rwanda, 1994-2009

Jens Meierhenrich

Assistant Professor, Harvard University

Friday, November 20th, 12:15-1:45pm , Department of Political Science, Scott Hall 2nd floor, Ripton Room 201, 601 University Place, Evanston, IL 60208

This talk is part of the Comparative Politics Search and is open to faculty and graduate students.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Parties as Political Institutions: Explaining Asymmetrical Organizational Change in the Democratic and Republican Parties

Daniel Galvin

Assistant Professor, Northwestern University

Monday, November 23rd, 12:00-1:00 p.m, IPR Conference Room, 617 Library Place, Evanston Campus

Abstract: There is perhaps no more widely accepted a premise in political science than that of party symmetry in a two-party system. Each party is presumed to mimic the opposition party in a preemptive effort to maximize votes, resulting in organizational isomorphism. Though structural convergences have occurred in American history, Galvin argues that over the last 60 years, party asymmetry was the norm, not the exception. Rather than run in parallel or move in alternating rhythm with one another, the Democratic and Republican parties changed at different times and in different ways. As each party confronted its own challenges and worked to resolve its own structural and operational dilemmas, each followed an organizational trajectory of its own making. Drawing upon the rich historical record of modern party operations, Galvin offers an institution-centered theory of party change, emphasizing three specific mechanisms of institutional reproduction in the parties.

_________________________________________________________________________________