Stanford University

Brandon Hoang

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2022-23
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Major: International Relations
Hometown: Missouri City, TX
Thesis Advisor: Kathryn Stoner

Tentative Thesis Title: Divine Right, Revolution, and Republicanism: Discerning the Catholic Church's Role in Democratic Formation in Western Europe

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I am interested in taking my curiosity about political theory and practice to law school, after which I hope to eventually pursue a career in public service.

A fun fact about yourself: I carry the banner of the French House of Bourbon in my backpack wherever I go, and I don’t plan on stopping!

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The Long-Run Consequences of The Opium Concessions for Out-Group Animosity on Java

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This article examines the consequences of the opium concession system in the Dutch East Indies—a nineteenth-century institution through which the Dutch would auction the monopolistic right to sell opium in a given locality. The winners of these auctions were invariably ethnic Chinese. The poverty of Java's indigenous population combined with opium's addictive properties meant that many individuals fell into destitution. The author argues that this institution put in motion a self-reinforcing arrangement that enriched one group and embittered the other with consequences that persist to the present day. Consistent with this theory, the author finds that individuals living today in villages where the opium concession system once operated report higher levels of out-group intolerance compared to individuals in nearby unexposed counterfactual villages. These findings improve the understanding of the historical conditions that structure antagonisms between competing groups.

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Journal Articles
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Subtitle

This article examines the consequences of the opium concession system in the Dutch East Indies—a nineteenth-century institution through which the Dutch would auction the monopolistic right to sell opium in a given locality.

Journal Publisher
World Politics
Authors
Nicholas Kuipers
Number
pp. 1–38

Sorcha Whitley

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2022-23
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Major: International Relations
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Thesis Advisor: Stephen Stedman

Tentative Thesis Title: The UN and State-building Missions: Democratic Institutions and Legitimacy

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I will be applying to both law school and PhD programs — I hope writing my thesis will help me choose between the two. Post-graduate school, I want to get involved in developmental policymaking.

A fun fact about yourself: I am trained in classical ballet, and I perform with Stanford's own Cardinal Ballet Company!

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Sarah Lee

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2022-23
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Major: International Relations
Minor: Human Rights
Hometown: Arcadia, CA
Thesis Advisor: Rob Reich

Tentative Thesis Title: Understanding Facebook's disparities in democratic investment around the world

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I'm not entirely sure yet, but I know that my work will relate to human rights in some way, whether that looks like immigrant and refugee justice or the intersection of human rights and technology. I am interested in going to law school one day, and I would love to work a few years in policy and advocacy first.

A fun fact about yourself: My current favorite artist and writer is the same person: Japanese Breakfast, aka Michelle Zauner. If you haven't listened to her band’s music or read "Crying in H-Mart," you must!

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Matthew Heafey

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2022-23
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Major: Political Science
Minor: Mathematics
Hometown: Hillsborough, CA
Thesis Advisor: Larry Diamond

Tentative Thesis Title: A Comparative Analysis of the Roots of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic, Populist Movements in the United States and Europe

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I intend to pursue further studies in democracy and political science more generally. I’m not certain about my career aspirations, but I am broadly interested in careers in political communications.

A fun fact about yourself: I love music! I play three instruments and sing.

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2022 CDDRL Fisher Family Honors Program Award Winner Presentations

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CDDRL's Fisher Family Honors Program trains students from any academic department at Stanford to prepare them to write a policy-relevant research thesis with global impact on a subject touching on democracy, development, and the rule of law. For our final Spring 2022 seminar, please join us to hear our Honors Program award winners present their research.

Adrian Scheibler, Firestone Medal winner
 

Adrian Scheibler
Major: International Relations
Thesis Advisor: Christophe Crombez

Thesis Title: Challenging the State: Western European Regionalism in the Era of Financial Crisis

Abstract: The Global Financial Crisis and its aftershocks have substantially altered the Western European political landscape. But while the literature has extensively focused on the impacts of the economic hardship on traditional party competition, it has often failed to consider the center-periphery dimension. My thesis addresses both the demand for and supply of regionalist ideologies during the crisis. Using an original dataset containing 8 countries, 35 regions, and 128 regionalist parties, it finds that voters did not increase their support for regionalist parties during the crisis and may have even turned their backs on these political actors. In addition, I consider the reactions of regionalist parties in three Spanish autonomous communities - Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia - to the crisis. I find evidence of regionalist mobilization on the issue and even some indications of radicalization of regionalist demands. Taken together, these findings raise interesting implications for the impacts of the financial crisis and the interaction between economic indicators, party competition, and voting patterns.

 

Michal Skreta, CDDRL Outstanding Thesis winner
 

Michal Skreta
Major: Economics and Political Science
Thesis Advisor: Larry Diamond

Thesis Title: Babies, Money, and Power: Estimating Causal Effects of the “Family 500+” Child Benefit Program in Poland using the Synthetic Control Method

Abstract: The ‘Family 500+” child benefit program introduced in April 2016 by the government of Poland has become the single most expensive component of Polish social policy expenditure, yet past studies have rarely estimated the effects of the program through causal methods. In a novel application within this context, I propose using the synthetic control method as a causal identification strategy to empirically estimate country-level treatment effects of the program on fertility, poverty, and inequality. Treating 500+ as a natural experiment, I compare observational data from actual Poland with a synthetic counterfactual of Poland constructed from a weighted donor pool of other European countries through a data-driven selection procedure. My findings on fertility metrics are consistent with prior studies, being ambiguous and insignificant, indicating that the main short-term objective of the program has not been achieved. Meanwhile, I find that the program causally reduced the rate of people at risk of poverty in Poland by over 16%, including by more than 23% among children. I also find that the child benefit has led to a significant reduction in income inequality, being causally responsible for a decline of 5.9% in the Gini index and of 8.0% in the income quintile share ratio. While significant, the results on poverty and inequality are weaker than initially anticipated. My results are robust under in-space treatment reassignment placebo studies. The findings contribute to a growing literature on the causal effects of child benefit policy interventions applied on an aggregate unit level.

 

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Stephen J. Stedman
Didi Kuo

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Adrian Scheibler

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22
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Major: International Relations / Coterm Public Policy   
Minor: Economics
Hometown: Augst, Switzerland
Thesis Advisor: Christophe Crombez 

Tentative Thesis Title: Separatism in Western Europe: Ideologies and the European Union

Future aspirations post-Stanford: Continue with studies either in law or political science/economics.

A fun fact about yourself: I spent the coronavirus lockdown in Belgium.

Michal Skreta

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22
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Major: Economics and Political Science   
Hometown: Warsaw, Poland
Thesis Advisor: Larry Diamond

Tentative Thesis Title: Babies, Money, and Power: Estimating Causal Effects of the “Family 500+” Child Benefit Program in Poland using the Synthetic Control Method

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I hope to ultimately pursue a career at the intersection of private and public sectors with a strong international focus as well as to continue my interdisciplinary education in graduate school.

A fun fact about yourself: I once got lost on a volcano in Guatemala.

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Avalon Wolfe

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22
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Major: Political Science
Minor: Computer Science; Ethics and Technology 
Hometown: Fort Worth, TX
Thesis Advisor: Francis Fukuyama

Tentative Thesis Title: Examining Why Countries With Little Histories of Privacy Enact Data Privacy Laws

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I'm not sure precisely what I want to do after college, but I hope to work at the intersection of technology and law/policy.

A fun fact about yourself: I'm a vegetarian from Texas (and my hometown is actually referred to as Cowtown).

Michal Skreta

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22
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Major: Economics and Political Science   
Hometown: Warsaw, Poland
Thesis Advisor: Larry Diamond

Tentative Thesis Title: Babies, Money, and Power: Estimating Causal Effects of the “Family 500+” Child Benefit Program in Poland using the Synthetic Control Method

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I hope to ultimately pursue a career at the intersection of private and public sectors with a strong international focus as well as to continue my interdisciplinary education in graduate school.

A fun fact about yourself: I once got lost on a volcano in Guatemala.

Adrian Scheibler

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22
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Major: International Relations / Coterm Public Policy   
Minor: Economics
Hometown: Augst, Switzerland
Thesis Advisor: Christophe Crombez 

Tentative Thesis Title: Separatism in Western Europe: Ideologies and the European Union

Future aspirations post-Stanford: Continue with studies either in law or political science/economics.

A fun fact about yourself: I spent the coronavirus lockdown in Belgium.

Deinstitutionalization of Central Banking in Turkey

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Deinstitutionalization of Central Banking in Turkey

The central banks are at the center of any financial system.

This talk discusses the changing features of public policy and administration in Turkey, comparing central banking under the presidential and parliamentary systems. It argues that the deinstitutionalization of conventional central banking norms and practices is the mirror image of new presidential public policymaking and administration. Not only did this process erode the policy capacity of the Central Bank but also that of the Turkish state. Therefore, one should not be surprised by current policy design and implementation failures, poor policy outcomes, and increased socioeconomic costs as these tendencies are not reversed.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Caner Bakir
Caner Bakır is a Visiting Fellow at Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a professor of Political Science at Koc University, and the Director of the Research Centre for Globalisation, Peace and Democratic Governance (GLODEM). His research in political economy and public policy focuses on comparative institutional analysis and policy change and has appeared in leading journals such as Policy Sciences, Governance, Public Administration, and Policy and Society. He is the Associate Editor of Policy Sciences and the Journal Comparative Policy Analysis, editorial board member of the Journal of Economic Policy Research, and the International Journal of Emerging Markets. In addition, he has authored and co-edited nine books. He is the recipient of The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey (TUBITAK) 2010 Incentive Award and 2008 Early Career Researcher Award.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Research on Globalization, Peace, and Democratic Governance at Koc University.

Ayça Alemdaroğlu

Online via Zoom

Caner Bakır Professor Visiting Fellow at Hoover Institution Koç University
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