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Elections

Playing with Fire on Election Security

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"If one foreign power continues to shred, on an ever-more daring basis, the integrity and inviolability of our electoral process, other foreign powers will draw lessons and follow. And they won’t all be pitching in on the Republican side," writes Larry Diamond in The American Interest. Read here.  

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Tesalia Rizzo

Encina Hall, E112 616 Jane Stanford Way Stanford, CA 94305-6055  
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CDDRL Postdoctoral Scholar, 2019-20
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Tesalia Rizzo holds a Ph.D. in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research focuses on the demand and supply side of political mediation. Specifically, on how political (formal, informal or clientelist) intermediaries shape citizens’ attitudes and political engagement. She also works with non-governmental practitioners in Mexico to develop and test policies that disincentivize citizen reliance on clientelist and corrupt avenues of engaging with government and strengthen citizen demand for accountability. Her work with Mexican practitioners was awarded the 2017 Innovation in Transparency Award given by the Mexican National Institute for Access to Information (INAI). She is also a Research Fellow at MIT GOV/LAB and the Political Methodology Lab, at MIT. She is a graduate of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City. Prior to arriving at Stanford, she was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Center for US-Mexican Studies at University of California, San Diego and will join the Political Science Faculty at the University of California, Merced in 2020.

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Democracy Demotion: How the Freedom Agenda Fell Apart

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In the honor of publication of Larry Diamond's "Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency" Foreign Affairs are providing past the paywall article "Democracy Demotion: How the Freedom Agenda Fell Apart" by Larry Diamond. Read here. 


 

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Ill Winds: Book Launch and Discussion with Larry Diamond

Please join Larry Diamond, Senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Affairs and the Hoover Institution for the launch of his latest book, "Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency."

 

Featuring a Panel Conversation with:

 

Zin Mar Aung

Burmese MP and political activist

 

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Russian journalist and anti-corruption crusader

 

Cara McCormick

CEO, Chamberlain Project, Co-founder/Co-leader of The

Committee for Ranked Choice Voting in Maine

 

*Reception to follow

Bechtel Conference Center

Encina Hall

616 Serra Mall

Stanford, CA 94305

The Future of Ukrainian Democracy after Elections: Successes and Challenges

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After the events of the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine made a decisive historic choice in its shift towards democracy, notwithstanding current threats to security and sovereignty from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas. Due to these circumstances, Ukraine is on the frontline of democracy between Russia and the West. In 2019, Ukrainians are facing major decisions in their country’s democratic development with the presidential and parliamentary elections. During the 2019 Presidential elections Ukrainians elected Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a former actor with no political background, with 73% of the vote. The more important Parliamentary elections are yet to come in the fall, and the resulting coalition will shape the future government.

In light of the elections the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program at the Stanford University Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law has gathered DC-based policy makers, high-level Ukrainian state officials and parliamentarians to discuss lessons that should be learned from the presidential elections, and what can we take away looking toward the October 2019 parliamentary elections.

The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program at the Stanford University Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law has organized a conference on these political developments to discuss pertinent policy issues that will affect Ukraine’s future. This conference reflects how UELP fellows are creating an important place for conversation on global development and Ukraine at Stanford University by raising key questions about the country’s future direction. They are also providing knowledge to their own community by connecting stakeholders in Ukraine to resources at Stanford and Silicon Valley.

 

 

VISIT CONFERENCE PAGE

 

Panels will include the following: 

9:15-10:45 Reforms in Ukraine

Since the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine has been scrutinized for its record on implementing reforms. However, in the past five years there have been many more success stories than in the history of Ukrainian independence prior to 2014. This panel will explore some of the most successful reforms in post-Maidan Ukraine, such as steps taken to improve the health care system, economics, and anti-corruption efforts. Please join the discussion on Reforms Panel Moderated by former Ambassador Steven Pifer with the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandra Saenko, Acting Minister of Health of Ukraine Dr. Ulana Suprun,  Member of the Ukrainian Parliament Mustafa Nayem and the Ukrainian Emerging Leader Fellows at Stanford – Natalia Mykolska, former Trade Representative of Ukraine and Oleksandra Ustinova, former Board Member of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine.


11:00-12:30 Church and Identity

On January 5, 2019 the tomos of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was signed, thus granting independence for the Ukrainian church, after centuries of subjugation to Russia. This was a historic move for Ukraine on many levels, from its cultural significance to its role in fighting Russian propaganda as the churches under the Moscow Patriarchate were massively used for propaganda  Since then, at least 340 parishes that were formerly under the Moscow Patriarchate have joined with the newly independent church. The creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a watershed moment in the global understanding of Ukrainian identity. 


12:30-2:00 Luncheon: New Faces in Ukrainian Politics

In light of the upcoming 2019 parliamentary elections you will have the opportunity to meet representatives from major political parties and movements who are considered up and coming reformers in Ukraine. The goal is to engage parliamentarians and others in a discussion about the future of Ukrainian political development. Stanford will bring together reform-minded stakeholders from prominent political parties that will be contending in the October 2019 parliamentary elections so that a multitude of opinions can be voiced and debated.


2:15-3:45 Security and Foreign Policy

One of the largest challenges Ukraine’s next president will face is the security of the country against Russian aggression. The 2018 Kerch Strait incident not only demonstrated the relentlessness of Russia’s continued incursions on Ukrainian sovereignty, but raised questions as to how Ukraine and the West should act in light of such attacks. Whoever wins the spring 2019 presidential elections will face important strategic decisions in the war effort and cooperation with international allies.


4:00-5:30 Tech & Innovation: Shaping Ukrainian Future

IT industry is a growth engine of Ukraine’s economy. Ukraine IT outsourcing industry is a globally recognized leader. Tech ventures working with enterprise software, ML / AI, cyber security, life-science, big data management, gaming, agribusiness and e-commerce. Exports of Ukrainian ICT services is the third largest export sector showing constant growth. Foreign investments into the industry are increasing ($285 mln in 2018). Moreover, the number of SMEs tech companies is growing as well (4,000+ IT companies). Furthermore, from year to year the number of successful tech ventures with Ukrainian founding teams and R&D offices in Silicon Valley is increasing. Ukraine has the largest and fastest-growing engineering talent pool in Europe with 160,000 specialists in 2018 and 242,000 prognosis by 2025. The country’s universities and polytechnic institutes graduate over 100,000 new engineers annually incl. 23000+ IT graduates.

 

 

 

 

Koret-Taube Conference Center
366 Galvez Street
Stanford, CA 94305

 

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CDDRL Conferences

Leah R. Rosenzweig

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CDDRL Postdoctoral Scholar, 2020-21
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My research centers on topics in comparative politics and the political economy of development. I focus on the micro-foundations of political behavior to gain leverage on macro-political questions. How do autocrats survive? How can citizen-state relations be improved and government accountability strengthened? Can shared identities mitigate out-group animosity? Adopting a multi-method approach, I use lab-in-the-field and online experiments, surveys, and in-depth field research to examine these questions in sub-Saharan Africa and the US. My current book project reexamines the role of elections in authoritarian endurance and explains why citizens vote in elections with foregone conclusions in Tanzania and Uganda. Moving beyond conventional paradigms, my theory describes how a social norm of voting and accompanying social sanctions from peers contribute to high turnout in semi-authoritarian elections. In other ongoing projects, I study how national and pan-African identification stimulated through national sports games influence attitudes toward refugees, the relationship between identity, emotions, and belief in fake news, and how researchers can use Facebook as a tool for social science research.

A New Age of Reform

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 "For the first time in American history, a U.S. congressional election was determined by “instant runoff,” using the system of ranked-choice voting that Maine had adopted in a 2016 voter initiative, and then reinstated (over the resistance of the state legislature and much of the state’s professional political class) in a June 2018 “people’s veto” initiative," writes Larry Diamond in The American Interest. Read here.

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Parties, Representation, and Governance in the 21st Century

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Has the age of party democracy passed? Parties throughout advanced democracies face challenges of voter distrust, declining associational ties, and the rise of far-right and populist movements. This conference brings together scholars of American and comparative parties and party systems to understand how and why parties have evolved, and to ask what role parties play in twenty-first century governance. 
Browse the conference webpage to learn more. 
 
 
 
Conferences

Arab Barometer Wave IV

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This event is co-sponsored with The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.

ABSTRACT

The Arab Barometer is the first and largest project of its kind that gives voice to the opinions and concerns of ordinary citizens across the Middle East and North Africa. Beginning in 2006, it has conducted rigorous and representative public opinion surveys in 15 countries over four waves. To date, across these waves, more than 45,000 face-to-face interviews have been conducted in the respondent’s place of residence. Among the topics explored are attitudes and values pertaining to politics, economics, religion, democracy, quality of governance, women’s rights, and identity. Arab Barometer data, which are publicly accessible through the Barometer’s website, are a valuable resource for research that seeks not only to describe but also to explain public attitudes on important issues affecting the MENA region. The Arab Barometer is directed by a steering committee composed of team leaders from four institutions in the Arab world and researchers at Princeton University and the University of Michigan. In this workshop, Amaney Jamal, Mark Tessler and Michael Robbins will present results from the fourth wave of data and an overview of the upcoming fifth wave.

 

SPEAKERS BIO

Amaney A. Jamal is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics at Princeton University and director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice. Jamal also directs the Workshop on Arab Political Development. She currently is President of the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS). The focus of her current research is democratization and the politics of civic engagement in the Arab world. Her interests also include the study of Muslim and Arab Americans and the pathways that structure their patterns of civic engagement in the United States. Jamal’s books include: Barriers to Democracy(2007), which explores the role of civic associations in promoting democratic effects in the Arab world (winner of the 2008 APSA Best Book Award in comparative democratization).

Mark Tessler is Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Politics at the University of Michigan, where he also previously served as Vice-Provost for International Affairs. He has conducted research in Tunisia, Israel, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and Palestine and hasdirected or co-directed social science training and capacity-building programs in nine Arab countries. Tessler is also co-founder and a past president of the American Institution for Maghrib Studies. Among the fifteen books he has authored or coauthored are Public Opinion in the Middle East: Survey Research and the Political Orientations of Ordinary Citizens (2011); and Islam and Politics in the Middle East: Explaining the Views of Ordinary Citizens (2015). His current research examines the way that ordinary citizens in the MENA region think about women’s rights and status and the degree to which their attitudes are, or are not, shaped by religious attachments and understandings.

Michael Robbins is Director of the Arab Barometer. He has led or overseen more than 50 surveys in international contexts and is a leading expert in survey methods to prevent data fabrication. His work on Arab public opinion, political Islam and political parties has been published inComparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution and the Journal of Democracy. He received the American Political Science Association Aaron Wildavsky Award for the Best Dissertation in the field of Religion and Politics. Previously, he has served as a research fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and aresearch associate at the Pew Research Center.

Following this event, Stanford student presentations will take place in the Reuben Hills Conference Room (2nd Floor Encina East Wing, E207) from 1:30pm to 2:30pm.

Christiana Parreira 
Title: Modernization and the Politics of Contemporary Kinship in the Middle East 
Comments: Amaney Jamal

Scott Williamson 
Title: Electoral Legitimacy and Compliance in Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from the Arab World 
Comments: Michael Robbins

Salma Mousa 
Title: The Casual Effect of Sectarian Violence: Terrorism, Political Preferences, and Religiosity in Iraq 
Comments: Mark Tessler

 

William J. Perry Conference Room,
Encina Hall (Central), 2nd Floor, 616 Serra St,
Stanford, CA 94305

Amaney A. Jamal Professor of Politics Princeton University
Mark Tessler Professor of Politics University of Michigan
Michael Robbins Director of the Arab Barometer Arab Barometer
Seminars
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

Political Contestation and New Social Forces in the Middle East and North Africa

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Please note: Registration for the conference is open only to Stanford University affiliates. A valid SUNet ID is required to register.

Click here to register. Please use your Stanford e-mail address to log in when prompted.

(For registration trouble shooting instructions, click here)

DAY 1: Friday, April 27

 

8:30-9:00 a.m.    Breakfast

 

9:00-9:15 a.m.    Introductory Remarks

 

9:15-11:00 a.m.  Panel 1: Youth, Culture, and Expressions of Resistance

Ayca Alemdaroglu, Stanford University

“Affective Pedagogies: Governing Youth in the Times of Dissent in Turkey”

Adel Iskandar, Simon Fraser University

“Uprisings Upended: Arab Youth Between Dissociation, Disenchantment, and Desecration”

Yasemin Ipek, Stanford University

“Imagining Social Change after the Syrian Civil War: Entrepreneurial Activism and Cross-Sectarian Political Mobilization in Lebanon”

Chair: Hicham Alaoui, Harvard University

 

11:00-11:15 a.m. Coffee Break

 

11:15-1:00 p.m.  Panel 2: Situating Gender in the Law and the Economy

Hanan Hammad, Texas Christian University 

“Democracy from the Gender Edge”

Alessandra Gonzalez, Stanford University

“Do Source or Host Country Practices Dominate in Female Executive Hiring? Evidence from Firms in the GCC Countries”

Ibtesam Al Atiyat, St. Olaf College

“Repealing Rape Article 308: The Missed Opportunity to Women’s Emancipation in Jordan”

Chair: Joel Beinin, Stanford University

 

1:00-2:00 p.m.    Lunch

 

2:00-3:45 p.m.    Panel 3: Social Movements and Visions for Change

Dina El-Sharnouby, Freie Universität Berlin 

“The 2011 Revolutionary Movement in Egypt and Youth’s Socio-Political Imaginaries of Transformation and Change”

Mohamed Daadaoui, Oklahoma City University 

“It’s Good to Be the King, or Is It? Protest Movements, the “refo-lutionary” promise of PJD Islamists and the King’s Dilemma in Morocco”

Nora Doaiji, Yale University

“After Saudi Women’s Driving: What Happens When A Marginal Movement Is Centered by the State”

Chair: Amr Hamzawy, Stanford University

 

DAY 2: Saturday April 28

 

8:30-9:00 a.m.    Breakfast

 

9:00-10:45 a.m.  Panel 4: The Economy, the State and New Social Actors

Mona Atia, The George Washington University 

“Territorial Restructuring and the Politics of Governing Poverty in Morocco”

Amr Adly, European University Institute

“Egypt's Shattered Oligarchy and Big Business Autonomy”

Mahmoud El-Gamal, Rice University 

“Egyptian Economic and De-Democratization Trends”

Chair: Lisa Blaydes, Stanford University

 

10:45-11:00 a.m. Coffee Break

 

11:00-12:30 p.m. Panel 5: Social Change and International and Regional Dynamics

Hicham Alaoui, Harvard University

"Geopolitical Myths and Realities under Neo-Authoritarianism"

Daniel Brumberg, Georgetown University 

“The Roots and Impact of Democracy Resistance and Autocracy Promotion in the Arab World”

Nancy Okail, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy

"Political Reform, Security, and U.S. Middle East Policy"

Chair: Larry Diamond, Stanford University

 

 

To access the registration page:

1) Please sign out of all your google.com accounts

2) Visit accounts.google.com and log in using your Stanford e-mail address (e.g. john.smith@stanford.edu)

3) Click on the RSVP form

The event will be held at Stanford University. The exact location will be shared via e-mail with registered participants a week prior to the conference. Please read registration instructions below.

Conferences
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series
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