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Local Political Economy Symposium

Virtual

The Local Political Economy Symposium at USC brings together nationally renowned scholars who study the most pressing political-economic issues at the local level — from compensation of public employees, to municipal bankruptcy, to criminal justice reform.

PIPE Workshop: Chad Kendall (Political Parties as Drivers of US Polarization)

Virtual

The current polarization of elites in the U.S., particularly in Congress, is frequently ascribed to the emergence of cohorts of ideologically extreme legislators replacing moderate ones. Politicians, however, do not operate as isolated agents, driven solely by their preferences. They act within organized parties, whose leaders exert control over the Read more…

PIPE Workshop featuring Wallsten & VanSickel-Ward

Rachel Van Sickle-Ward, Professor of Political Studies at Claremont University, along with Kevin Wallsten, Associate Professor of Political Science at CSULB, will present their research. Register for link to join the Zoom Webinar.

PIPE* Workshop: Miguel Pereira, USC Dornsife

Miguel Pereira, Assistant Professor of Political Science at USC Dornsife, will present research: The Expertise Curse: How Policy Expertise Can Hinder Responsiveness.

Slavery & Its Legacies Symposium

Slavery, as an institution, traces its origins back to Mesopotamia in 3500 B.C. Slavery was abolished by most nations sometime in the 19th century. Slavery’s effects, however, persisted in many nations for decades — and still persist in various forms today. The Slavery and Its Legacies Symposium examines this historical persistence of institutionalized slavery, both in the United States and in other nations.

PIPE* Workshop: Volha Charnysh, MIT

Volha Charnysh, Assistant Professor of Political Science at MIT, will present Dispute Resolution in Heterogenous Societies.

PIPE Workshop: Zhao Li, Princeton

Zhao Li, Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, studies American politics and political economy with a focus on campaign finance in the United States. In particular, her research examines both institutional and behavioral factors that motivate campaign donors to give money to different types of recipients (candidates, interest groups, etc.), as well as the implications of these donations for different aspects of democratic representation in the U.S., including corporate political strategy, political extremism, and electoral accountability.

Free

PIPE Workshop: Jake Grumbach, University of Washington

Virtual

Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding Using 61 indicators of democratic performance from 2000 to 2018, we develop a measure of subnational democratic performance, the State Democracy Index. We use this measure to test theories of democratic expansion and backsliding based in party competition, polarization, demographic change, and the group interests of Read more…

Free

PIPE Workshop: Leticia Arroyo Abad & Noel Maurer

Virtual

What Have the Americans Ever Done for Us? Lessons from the United States in Latin America, 1895-1929 The United States spent 20 years in Afghanistan attempting to achieve two interrelated aims: reduce the level of political instability and build Afghan state capacity. It partially succeeded in the first: the Afghan Read more…

Free

PIPE Workshop: Emily Sellars, Yale

Virtual

Fiscal Legibility and State Development: Theory and Evidence from Colonial Mexico We examine how fiscal legibility, the ability of a central government to observe local economic conditions for the purposes of taxation, shapes political centralization. When a ruler is unable to observe economic conditions, it can be preferable to grant Read more…

Free

PIPE Workshop: Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford

Virtual

Tilly goes to Church: the Medieval and Religious Roots of European State Formation Medieval religious rivalry fundamentally shaped European state formation. The single most powerful challenger to kings and emperors in the Middle Ages was the Catholic Church. To protect its interests and ensure its autonomy, the papacy deliberately fragmented Read more…

Free

PIPE Workshop: Michael Olson, Washington University – St. Louis

Virtual

"Restoration” and Representation: Legislative Consequences of Black Disfranchisement in the American South, 1879-1916 The restriction of African Americans' voting rights in the U.S. South in the decades following Reconstruction is the most significant instance of democratic backsliding in American history. Despite this, it remains unclear whether and to what extent Read more…

Free

Bedrosian Center