Stanford University

Governance

FSI's research on the origins, character and consequences of government institutions spans continents and academic disciplines. The institute’s senior fellows and their colleagues across Stanford examine the principles of public administration and implementation. Their work focuses on how maternal health care is delivered in rural China, how public action can create wealth and eliminate poverty, and why U.S. immigration reform keeps stalling. 

FSI’s work includes comparative studies of how institutions help resolve policy and societal issues. Scholars aim to clearly define and make sense of the rule of law, examining how it is invoked and applied around the world. 

FSI researchers also investigate government services – trying to understand and measure how they work, whom they serve and how good they are. They assess energy services aimed at helping the poorest people around the world and explore public opinion on torture policies. The Children in Crisis project addresses how child health interventions interact with political reform. Specific research on governance, organizations and security capitalizes on FSI's longstanding interests and looks at how governance and organizational issues affect a nation’s ability to address security and international cooperation.

APSIA Online Graduate School Fair

-

Please join our partners at APSIA for their 2021 online grad school fair. Representatives from across the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and other top-line graduate programs in international studies at leading universities will be online to answer your questions and provide resources on the application process.

Whether you are an undergrad student trying to decide what comes next in your academic journey or a professional looking to advance your career, this is an excellent opportunity to network and gain insight into reaching your goals.

Register: https://bit.ly/apsiafair2

Workshops

Professor Beatriz Magaloni Wins the 2021 Heinz I. Eulau Award for Best Article Published in American Political Science Review

Authors
Nora Sulots
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

Please join us in congratulating Beatriz Magaloni, professor of political science, FSI senior fellow, and faculty director of the Program on Poverty, Violence & Governance, winner of the 2021 Heinz I. Eulau Award for the best article published in American Political Science Review!

In this award-winning article entitled “Killing in the Slums: Social Order, Criminal Governance and Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro," Professor Magaloni, Edgar Franco-Vivanco, and Vanessa Melo explore the conditions that allow criminal organizations to establish local governance structures and the mechanisms that enable the police to regain territorial control and legitimacy.

The article finds that in territories reigned by criminal orders, police have to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the community and emerge as the sole embodiment of coercive force and emerge as the legitimate embodiment of physical force. But this is not always easy. For instance, when criminal rule effectively provides local security and public goods, the state will have a hard time gaining territorial control. Why? Because residents often feel safer under the authority of drug lords than with the police presence. However, where criminal orders cannot restrain their forces from fighting among themselves and victimizing residents, it is significantly easier for the government to regain territorial control and create a legitimate state order. To do so, the state has to constrain violence, monitor and sanction police officers’ abusive behaviors, and bring public justice systems to the poor. Otherwise, the state will likely fail to retake territorial control, allowing criminal orders to prevail.

To read more, check out the article here.

Congratulations, Professor Magaloni, on this high honor!

Beatriz Magaloni

Beatriz Magaloni

Professor of political science, FSI senior fellow, and faculty director of the Program on Poverty, Violence & Governance
See Profile

Read More

gettyimages 836359310
News

Police Reform in Brazil and Mexico: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What the U.S. Can Learn

On the World Class Podcast, Beatriz Magaloni discusses how community-oriented policing and constitutional reform can impact violence committed by police.
Police Reform in Brazil and Mexico: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What the U.S. Can Learn
police brutality
News

New Research from the Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab Examines Police Brutality

For the last 10 years, a team of social scientists at the Poverty, Violence, and Governance (PovGov) lab at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) have been developing action-oriented research to support human rights and inform policy on the root causes and devastating consequences of violence.
New Research from the Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab Examines Police Brutality
photo 9 policeforce
News

In Rio’s slums, Stanford researchers study police reform

In Rio’s slums, Stanford researchers study police reform
Hero Image
Beatriz Magaloni
Professor Beatriz Magaloni
All News button
1
Subtitle

The award-winning article is entitled “Killing in the Slums: Social Order, Criminal Governance and Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro.” Professor Magaloni coauthored the article with Edgar Franco-Vivanco, who earned his Ph.D. from Stanford and is now at the University of Michigan; and with Vanessa Melo, a graduate student in Anthropology at UCLA.

2021 CDDRL Fisher Family Honors Program Award Winner Presentations

-

The CDDRL Spring seminar series will be open to the Stanford community via Zoom

and will be recorded for the general public to watch later.

 

 

Audrey Bloom
Audrey Bloom - Firestone Award Winner

Major: Human Biology
Advisor: Terry Moe

Thesis Title: How Doctors Influence the Price of Healthcare in the United States and Japan: The Critical Role of Interest Group Politics in America’s Healthcare Cost Crisis

 

 

Hiroto Saito

 
Hiroto Saito - CDDRL Outstanding Thesis Winner 
 

Major: International Relations

Advisor: Dr. Gil-li Vardi, Dr. Stephen Stedman

Thesis Title: Colombia after the FARC: Has Peace Really Arrived?

Online, via Zoom:  REGISTER

Seminars

Nicholas Kuipers

1
CDDRL Predoctoral Scholar, 2021-22
nick_kuipers.jpg

Nicholas Kuipers is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, studying comparative politics and political economy. Nicholas’ research has been supported by the Institute for International Studies, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG), and the Weiss Family Fund. His research has been published in Asian Survey, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Journal of Experimental Political Science. A graduate of Oberlin College, he previously worked in Jakarta at Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting, a political consultancy specializing in public opinion surveys.

Alejandra Aldridge

1
CDDRL Predoctoral Scholar, 2021-22
alejandra_aldridge.jpg

Alejandra Aldridge is a PhD candidate in the Political Science department at Stanford University. Her dissertation examines how partisanship colors citizens' approval of presidential actions that violate democratic norms. Broadly, her research interests include  executive politics, public opinion, democratic norms, experimental methods, survey methodology, and gender and politics. Alejandra graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in Political Science. On the side, she loves tennis, Crossfit, Sprinkles cupcakes, and dark chocolate.

 

 

Hans Lueders

1
Hoover Fellow, Hoover Institution
CDDRL Affiliated Scholar
CDDRL Postdoctoral Scholar, 2021-22
hans_lueders.jpg

I hold a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University. My research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of inequality in political representation across different political contexts. I am currently working on a book project that links inequality in representation and rising societal and political polarization to domestic migration. The book project focuses on contemporary Germany and combines household surveys with comprehensive data on domestic migration, voting in national and local elections, civil society organizations, political campaigning, and political recruitment. In a separate, co-authored book project, I research inequality in political participation among domestic migrants in sub-Saharan Africa. My other research asks how citizens can influence policy-making in non-democratic regimes, where political inequality is extreme by construction, and how unauthorized immigrants in the United States navigate life while being marginalized. My work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Journal of Politics, Democratization, the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, and the European Political Science Review, among others. Before coming to Stanford, I spent two years as Visiting Assistant in Research at Yale University and obtained BA and MA degrees in Political Science from Heidelberg University in Germany.

Hide publication sections
Off
Date Label

Aytuğ Şaşmaz

1
CDDRL Postdoctoral Scholar, 2021-22
aytug.jpg

I am a political scientist (PhD degree expected in July 2021 from Harvard) working on political parties, social welfare policies and local governance, primarily in the Middle East and North Africa. My dissertation project focuses on secular parties in the region and explores why they could not form a robust electoral alternative to the Islamist parties in the post-uprisings period. In other projects, I explore voters' responses to executive aggrandizement (focusing on Turkey), and social welfare in the context of ethnic and organizational diversity (focusing on Lebanon). Prior to PhD, I worked as an education policy analyst in Turkey, managing several research projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, World Bank and UNICEF. I hold a BA degree in Political Science from Boğaziçi, and Master's degrees from the LSE and Brown. 

Islamists and the Arab Uprisings

-

This event is cosponsored by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University and the Ten Years On Project, www.TheArabUprisings.org

ABSTRACT

During the height of the mass uprisings against authoritarian rule, excitement about the prospects for a more just and representative political order across the Arab region was often tempered by questions concerning the role that Islamist parties would play in post-authoritarian transitions. Movements that maintained deep social roots but were often on the margins of state power were poised to implement an Islamist political project decades in the making. The outcomes of the subsequent transitions, particularly the legacy of destructive civil conflicts, foreign interventions, and authoritarian resurgence, have frequently obscured attempts to understand the impact of the Arab uprisings on Islamism. 

This talk examines these recent developments by placing them within a broader historical analysis that traces the evolution of Islamist thought and activism from its tentative embrace of the nation state to its wholehearted entry into national party politics. It argues that, by the eve of the uprisings, the posture of Islamist movements reflected a set of political commitments that had emerged largely at the expense of their ideological program and social mission. Rooted in the historical and recent acceptance of state institutions and political structures, expressions of Islamism by parties across the Arab region reflected a shift that subsumed long held beliefs beneath the needs of (alternately or in combination) democratic pluralism and political expediency, most clearly visible in the transformation of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party. That tension has been exacerbated in the wake of political defeats experienced by many of these movements, particularly Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. While the “Islamist idea” is likely to endure its current bout with state repression, its survival as a political force in the future will depend on its determination to complete this evolution, a process that was both accelerated and interrupted during the critical moments of the Arab uprisings.

SPEAKER BIO

Abdullah Al Arian

Abdullah Al-Arian is an associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar where he specializes in the modern Middle East and the study of Islamic social movements. He is the author of Answering the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Sadat's Egypt (Oxford University Press). His upcoming book compares the historical experiences of Islamist movements in six different Arab states and will be published by Cambridge University Press. He is also editor of the Critical Currents in Islam page on Jadaliyya ezine.

 

*Note: Event time listed above is PST.

Online, via Zoom:  REGISTER

Abdullah Al-Arian Associate Professor of History Georgetown University in Qatar
Seminars
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

The Autocratic Middle Class

-

About the Event:

The Autocratic Middle Class studies the post-communist middle classes – not as a force for democracy, but as a source of support for autocracy and authoritarian resilience. It helps to explain why authoritarianism deepened across the ex-Soviet region over a period when the middle class was rapidly expanding; why anti-Putin protests in Russia have thus far failed to achieve a critical mass; and why it has been so difficult to consolidate democracy in Ukraine. Drawing on attitudinal surveys, unique data on protest participation, and extensive fieldwork in the former Soviet Union, this book shows that state dependence weakens the middle classes’ incentives to prefer and pursue democracy and sheds light on why development doesn’t necessarily lead to democratization.

 

About the Speaker:

Bryn Rosenfeld
Bryn Rosenfeld is Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University. Her research interests include political behavior, development and democratization, protest, post-communist politics, and survey methodology. Her new book, The Autocratic Middle Class examines how middle-class economic dependence on the state impedes democratization and contributes to authoritarian resilience. She is the recipient of a Juan Linz Best Dissertation Prize and a Best Article Award honorable mention, both by the American Political Science Association’s Democracy & Autocracy Section. Her work appears in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and Sociological Methods & Research. She holds a PhD from Princeton.

Online, via Zoom:  REGISTER

Bryn Rosenfeld Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University
Seminars

Digital Activism and Authoritarian Adaptation in the Middle East

REGISTER

 

Digital Activism and Authoritarian Adaptation in the Middle East Agenda (1 of 2)

Digital Activism and Authoritarian Adaptation in the Middle East Agenda (2 of 2)

Panel 1: Digital Activism

Tuesday, May 25, 2021 | 9-10:30 am PT

Opening Remarks: Marc Lynch, Eileen Donahoe, and Larry Diamond

Moderator: Hesham Sallam

  • Wafa Ben-Hassine: “The Hyper-Aware and Not-So-Aware: What's Next for the MENA Region's Activists and Society at Large Vis-a-Vis the Internet?”
  • Adel Iskander: “Re(Membering) Culture and Heritage: Egypt's Latest Political Turf War”
  • Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld: “Civilian Behavior on Social Media During Civil War”
  • Joshua Tucker: “Beyond Liberation Technology? The Recent Uses of Social Media by Pro-Democracy Activists”

 

Panel 2: Authoritarian Abuses of Internet Technologies

Thursday, May 27, 2021 | 9-10:30 am PT

Moderator: Marc Lynch

  • Marwa Fatafta: “Transnational or Cross-Border Digital Repression in the MENA Region”
  • Andrew Leber: “Social Media Manipulation in the MENA: Inauthenticity, Inequality, and Insecurity” (Co-authored paper with Alexei Abrahams)
  • Marc Owen Jones: “Tracking Adversaries: The Evolution of Manipulation Tactics on Gulf Twitter”
  • Xiao Qiang: “Chinese Digital Authoritarianism and Its Global Impact”

 

Panel 3: Government Reshaping of Norms and Practices to Constrain Online Activity

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 | 9-10:30 am PT

Moderator: Eileen Donahoe

  • Ahmed Shaheed: “Binary Threat: How State Cyber Policy and Practice Undermines Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa Region”
  • Mona Elswah, Mahsa Alimardani: "The Hurdles Involved in Content Moderation in the MENA Region"
  • Mohamed Najem: “The Role of the Gulf in Governing Digital Space in the Arab Region”
  • James Shires: “The Techno-Regulation of Critical Communications Infrastructures and Their Political Potential in the Gulf”
  • Alexei Abrahams: “The Web (In)Security of Middle Eastern Civil Society and Media”

 

Panel 4: Cross-Border Information Operations

Thursday, June 3, 2021 | 9-10:30 am PT

Moderator: Larry Diamond

  • Alexandra Siegel: “Official Foreign Influence Operations: Transnational State Media in the Arab Online Sphere”
  • Hamit Akin Unver: “Russian Disinformation Operations in Turkey: 2015-2020”
  • Shelby Grossman and Renee DiResta: “In-House vs. Outsourced Trolls: How Digital Mercenaries Shape State Influence Strategies”
  • Nathaniel Gleicher: “Covert Manipulation, Overt Influence, Direct Exploit: Understanding and Countering Influence Operations in the Middle East and Beyond”
Download pdf
Subscribe to Governance