Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law is part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
CDDRL
616 Serra St.
Encina Hall
Stanford, CA 94305
Political Clientelism: An Empirical Analysis of the Roots of Client-patron Relations in Argentina
Kathryn Sikkink is a Regents Professor and the McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She has a M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. Her publications include Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America; Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (co-authored with Margaret Keck); The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (co-edited with Thomas Risse and Stephen Ropp); Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements, Networks and Norms (co-edited with Sanjeev Khagram and James Riker); and Ideas and Institutions: Developmentalism in Brazil and Argentina. Her book Activist Beyond Borders was awarded the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas for Improving World Order, and the International Studies Association Chadwick Alger Award for Best Book in the area of International Organizations. Her newest book The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World is forthcoming from W.W. Norton in 2011. Sikkink has been a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina, and has received a Guggenheim fellowship for her research on human rights prosecutions in the world. She is a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Association for Arts and Sciences, and a member of the editorial board of International Studies Quarterly, and International Organization.
Her current research interests focus on the influence of international law on domestic politics, especially in the area of human rights, transnational social movements and networks, and on the role of ideas and norms in international relations and foreign policy. With the support of the Twentieth Century Fund, she is currently involved in a research project on the international human rights idea and the evolution and effectiveness of human rights policies, especially in Latin America.
Landau Economics Building,
ECON 140
Patricia Isasa, a successful architect in Argentina, is a survivor of torture and imprisonment from the age of 16 to 18 during the Argentine dictatorship. She was imprisoned in 1976. Twenty years later she almost single handedly investigated the identities of 8 perpetrators of the crimes against her and others. Because of an impunity law in Argentina at the time, she took her case to Judge Baltasar Garzon in Spain who requested extradition, which was denied. In 2009 her case was finally tried in Argentina.
Six perpetrators were found guilty of human rights violations. Her trial is one of the first trials of the Argentine military and police. Patricia is now helping others with their cases and is working with President Cristina Kirchner to investigate the takeover of Papel Prensa in the 70s by the then and present media giant Clarin, which has resulted in extensive corporate control of the media in Argentina.
Sponsored by
Program on Human Rights, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies,
Center for Latin American Studies,
and Arroyo House
Seminar Room, Center for Latin American Studies
Bolivar House, Stanford University
582 Alvarado Row, Stanford, CA
Clientelist parties (or political machines) engage in a variety of strategies during elections. Most studies focus exclusively on "vote buying," a strategy that rewards opposing voters for switching their vote choices. Yet in many countries, machines also adopt other strategies, such as activating their passive constituencies through "turnout buying." What factors explain variation in patterns of clientelism during elections? We develop an analytical framework and formal model that emphasize the role of individual and contextual factors. Political machines focus on two key attributes of individuals--political preferences and inclination to vote--when choosing their mix of clientelist strategies. Machines also tailor their mix to at least five contextual factors: compulsory voting, machine support, political polarization, salience of political preferences, and strength of ballot secrecy. Evidence from Argentina, Brazil, and Russia is consistent with these findings.
In spring 2009, the Forum on Contemporary Europe (FCE) and the Division on Languages, Civilizations and Literatures (DLCL) delivered the first part of its multi-year research and public policy program on Contemporary History and the Future of Memory. The program explored how communities that have undergone deep and violent political transformations try to confront their past.
Despite vast geographical, cultural and situational differences, the search for post-conflict justice and reconciliation has become a global phenomenon, resulting in many institutional and expressive responses. Some of these are literary and aesthetic explorations about guilt, commemoration and memorialization deployed for reconciliation and reinvention. Others, especially in communities where victims and perpetrators live in close proximity, have led to trials, truth commissions, lustration, and institutional reform. This series illuminates these various approaches, seeking to foster new thinking and new strategies for communities seeking to move beyond atrocity.
Part 1: Contemporary History and the Future of Memory
In 2008-2009, this multi-year project on “History and Memory” at FCE and DLCL was launched with two high profile conference and speaker series: “Contemporary History and the Future of Memory” and “Austria and Central Europe Since 1989.” For the first series on Contemporary History, the Forum, along with four co-sponsors (the Division of Literatures, Civilizations, and Languages, principal co-sponsor; the department of English; The Center for African Studies; Modern Thought and Literature; the Stanford Humanities Center), hosted internationally distinguished senior scholars to deliver lectures, student workshops, and the final symposium with Stanford faculty respondents.
Part 2: History, Memory and Reconciliation
In 2009-2010, we launch part 2 of this project by adding “Reconciliation” to our mission. We are pleased to welcome the Human Rights Program at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law as co-sponsor of this series. This series will examine scholarly and institutional efforts to create new national narratives that walk the fine line between before and after, memory and truth, compensation and reconciliation, justice and peace. Some work examines communities ravaged by colonialism and the great harm that colonial and post-colonial economic and social disparities cause. The extent of external intervention creates discontinuities and dislocation, making it harder for people to claim an historical narrative that feels fully authentic. Another response is to set up truth-seeking institutions such as truth commissions. Historical examples of truth commissions in South Africa, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Morocco inform more current initiatives in Canada, Cambodia, Colombia, Kenya, and the United States. While this range of economic, social, political and legal modalities all seek to explain difficult pasts to present communities, it is not yet clear which approach yields greater truth, friendship, reconciliation and community healing. The FCE series “History, Memory, and Reconciliation” will explore these issues.
The series will have its first event in February 2010. Multiple international scholars are invited. Publications, speaker details, and pod and video casts will be accessible via the new FSI/FCE, DLCL, and Human Rights Program websites.
Series coordinators:
In 2009-2010, the Program on Human Rights will partner with FCE and DLCL to launch part 2 of the Contemporary History and the Future of Memory series by adding "Reconciliation" to the mission. This series will examine scholarly and institutional efforts to create new national narratives that walk the fine line between before and after, memory and truth, compensation and reconciliation, justice and peace. Some work examines communities ravaged by colonialism and the great harm that colonial and post-colonial economic and social disparities cause. The extent of external intervention creates discontinuities and dislocation, making it harder for people to claim an historical narrative that feels fully authentic. Another response is to set up truth-seeking institutions such as truth commissions. Historical examples of truth commissions in South Africa, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Morocco inform more current initiatives in Canada, Cambodia, Colombia, Kenya, and the United States. While this range of economic, social, political and legal modalities all seek to explain difficult pasts to present communities, it is not yet clear which approach yields greater truth, friendship, reconciliation and community healing. The "History, Memory, and Reconciliation" series will explore these issues.
The series will have its first event in February 2010. Multiple international scholars are invited.
This series will examine scholarly and institutional efforts to create new national narratives that walk the fine line between before and after, memory and truth, compensation and reconciliation, justice and peace.
The lecture is preceded by a workshop at 10am in the same location. For additional information please access the DLCL site listing here.
Margaret Jacks Hall (Building 460)
Terrace Room (Room 429)
Tasha Fairfield is a Hewlett Pre-Doctoral Fellow at CDDRL and a Ph.D candidate in the
Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. She has conducted extensive fieldwork
in Latin America, including Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia.
Encina Ground Floor Conference Room
