Past Events

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CP Workshop - Alex Lee
May 7, 2012

Abstract: Why do some projects of political identity mobilization emphasize the creation of bounded ethnic groups, while others emphasize the activation of markers of social status and hierarchical difference? Why do many subaltern groups actively involve themselves in the articulation of hierarchical identities such as caste? This paper develops a theory of both hierarchal and segmentary political strategies, and tests it using an original panel dataset of petitions submitted by Indian caste groups to the colonial census authorities. It finds that segmentary (“ethnicizing”) mobilization is related to the need for non-traditional elites to mobilize poor coethnics for electoral purposes, and is associated with large groups and areas with a large number of elected local officials. Hierarchical (“Sanskritizing”) mobilization is associated with the desire of local elites to gain an advantage in extra-state political conflict, and is more common among literate groups and groups in areas with a weak state presence. These findings, which are robust to a wide variety of controls and robustness checks, emphasize the importance of political institutions to social identity development, and the contingent nature of modern concepts of ethnic identity.

Comparative Politics Workshop

Theory Workshop - Tom Dougherty
May 4, 2012

Tom Dougherty is a post doctoral fellow at Stanford's Center for Ethics in Society.  He did his graduate work at MIT. His dissertation is entitled, “Help! Not Just Anybody. Essays on Altruism and Conflicts of Interest.” It looks at what beneficence requires of us as individuals. His primary research interests are in ethics. His paper, "On Whether to Prefer Pain to Pass" was recently published in Ethics. At the Center, he is teaching the courses, Justice, and Contemporary Moral Problems, and his research will continue to focus on questions concerning our obligations to people in need, as well as ethical issues concerning tense and foundational issues in a theory of rights. In July 2012, he will take up a continuing position at the University of Sydney.

Political Theory Workshop

CP Workshop - Amanda Robinson
April 30, 2012

Abstract: A common view of contemporary African societies is that they are primarily tribally oriented and that state-based nationalism is incredibly weak, especially among cultural groups that were partitioned by colonial -- and later state -- boundaries. In such culturally fragmented states, social capital and inter-personal trust are concentrated within ethnic groups, resulting in lower levels of society-wide generalized trust. Scholars have often implied that territorial nationalism could ameliorate the problems resulting from cultural diversity, such low levels of trust, but the state-defined national identity in African states is typically argued to be too weak. To empirically evaluate the impact of national identity on trust an ethnically diverse region of Africa, I analyze original data collected from members of two partitioned ethnic groups living alongside the Malawian-Zambian border, including survey measures of strength of national identification, an experimental manipulation of the salience of a common national identity, and a behavioral economic measure of interpersonal trust. In contrast to the commonly held view, I find that conationality is a strong and robust predictor of interpersonal trust, and equal in magnitude to the effect of coethnicity. Further, preliminary results suggest that interpersonal variation in the strength of national identification is positively related to the degree to which trust is conditioned on shared nationality, and there is suggestive evidence that this may be especially true when the national identity is made contextually salient.

Comparative Politics Workshop

CP Workshop - Amaney Jamal
April 27, 2012

Co-sponsored by Arab Reform

Discussant: Annette Mullaney

Abstract: This paper examines the role Arab regimes play in permitting political rights for women. We argue that regime commitment to women’s rights must be understood within the larger political context that structures state-opposition relations more broadly. Specifically, regimes are concerned about Islamist and traditionalist reactions to women’s rights. When regimes feel they have enough political capital, they will be more ready to stand by a commitment to women’s rights. When they believe their political capital is weakened they are less likely to stand behind women’s rights. In this paper, we argue that regimes in the Arab world lose political capital when US intervention increases. Such intervention is through the results of US involvement in wars in the region, military intervention, or the promotion of policies that are unpopular among the populace. In this paper—we will examine one particularly visible dimension of this
intervention—the deployment of US military troops—as a factor that weakens the political capital of regimes, and thus by implication also harms the status of women in the Middle East.

Comparative Politics Workshop

PT Workshop - Arlene Saxonhouse
April 27, 2012

Arlene W. Saxonhouse is the Caroline Robbins Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies and a former chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. She has published widely in the area of classical and early political thought and women in the history of political thought.

Political Theory Workshop

CP Workshop - Pradeep Chhibber and Jasjeet Singh Sekhon
April 23, 2012

Abstract: Certain ethnic cleavages are more stable fixtures of the social landscape than others. Some ethnic cleavages arise because of political mobilization of interests that happen to be related to ethnicity. Other ethnic cleavages are more fundamental than the politics of the day: they are social realities ready to be politically mobilized whether politicians at a given moment in time mobilize them or not. We develop experimental methods for determining if appeals to an ethnic or religious identity can be used to politically mobilize citizens. We have conducted experiments across India on the role of religion, trust, and political mobilization. We show that Muslims trust political appeals more if they appear to be from co-religious leaders. This contrasts sharply with our results for Hindus who do not trust co-religious figures more than other leaders. We argue that the trust given by Muslims to religious figures allows Muslim religious leaders to play a greater political role than Hindu religious leaders, at least in India. In our get-out-the-vote experiments, Muslims, unlike Hindus, are responsive to religious appeals even in a state where the political parties do not separate on the religious dimension and where politicians do not make explicitly religious appeals. We also show, however, that both Hindu and Muslim voters can be influenced by subtle religious appeals to vote for religious over secular parties in a state where the political parties have recently begun making divisive religious appeals

Comparative Politics Workshop

Theory Workshop - Chiara Cordelli
April 20, 2012

Abstract: Friendship distributes critical benefits across society, including material, cultural and social forms of capital, and does so unequally. There is wide empirical evidence that income, wealth, and levels of education vary dramatically according to the quality of individuals’ friendships. In light of these facts, this paper focuses on whether and how egalitarian requirements should extend beyond the family and the market, to minimally structured relations such as personal friendship. I first show that the practice of friendship presents a problem for theories of justice -- most famously G.A. Cohen’s -- that advocate for the direct extension of principles of egalitarian justice from political institutions to unregulated personal conduct. These theories, I argue, either fail to secure an appropriate moral space for friendship or are destined to generate an unfair distribution of social burdens among individuals, according to the particular identities of their own friendships. I then argue that principles of justice, beyond imposing reasonable constraints upon the conduct of friends through institutions external to friendship, ought to assess the patterns of socialization through which friendships form and develop. The inequalities produced by friendship should be indirectly adjusted by shaping the social and organizational environment of the civil society in which friendship relations develop.

Political Theory Workshop

Methods Workshop - Justin Grimmer
April 18, 2012

Justin Grimmer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science.  His research interests include political representation, Congress, bureaucracies, and political methodology.  His book project, Representational Style: What Legislators Say and Why It Matters, demonstrates that to understand how representation occurs in Congress, one must examine how legislators engage constituents outside of it.  Justin received his PhD from Harvard University in 2010 and his AB from Wabash College.  During academic years 2011-2013, Justin will be a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute.

Political Methodology Workshop

CP Workshop - Fotini Christia
April 16, 2012


Abstract: Development programs have been increasingly used not only as an instrument for economic and political development, but also as a tool for counterinsurgency.  Using a large-scale randomized field experiment we assess the effect of the largest development program in Afghanistan on winning the hearts and minds of the embattled civilian population. We find that development aid leads to significant improvement in economic well-being as well as in attitudes towards the government. It also leads to an improved security situation in the long run. These positive effects of development aid on attitudes and security, however, are not observed in districts with high levels of initial violence suggesting that a certain minimum threshold of security has to be in place for the provision of goods and services to have an effect on winning over civilian support.

Comparative Politics Workshop

Theory Workshop - Cecile Fabre
April 13, 2012

Professor Cecile Fabre is a political and moral philosopher whose work is located in Anglo-American normative thought. She is a tutorial fellow in Philosophy at Lincoln College, and a lecturer in the Faculty of Philosophy, at Oxford University.

Political Theory Workshop