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Research projects » Eastern Europe

Political Parties and Women's Political Representation: Assessing the Impact of Institutionalization in Candidate Selection Procedures Today, men hold more than 81 percent of all seats in national parliaments. Political parties monopolize candidate selection in almost all countries and they thus have a direct impact on the gendered composition of parliament. Exactly how political parties select their candidates and what types of apertures different selection procedures open for female aspirants is, however, to a large extent, still shrouded in mystery. This project analyzes the role of political parties for women?s political representation, and in particular how the level of insitutionalization in candidate selection affects women?s possibilities to be selected to legislative office. Even though the concept of institutionalization has been highlighted as one of the most important factors for women?s possibilities to be selected as candidates, the concept itself has neither been sufficiently conceptually concretized and operationalized nor systematically compared. The project will thus start with a theoretical and empirical exploration of the concept of institutionalization in selection procedures. Secondly, an empirical examination of its relationship to women?s representation will be carried out, and finally we will bring in the political context to be able to examine whether the role of institutionalization in candidate selection is contingent on the different preferences parties are likely to have in different political climates. The theoretical exploration of the concept will be based on previous research on political parties in developing countries, as well as literature on candidate selection processes. The empirical analysis is conducted using a new and unique data set produced by International IDEA. The data includes 176 parties in 64 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Especially relevant to the project is to survey contains questions about both the external regulations (i.e. national law) as well as the party's internal rules, formal as informal. This makes it possible to compare the importance of the parties' own formal regulations and what the respondents really think is important to have an opportunity to be selected as a candidate. We argue that an identification and comparison of this is critical to our understanding and use of the concept of institutionalization. Read more about the project.
Political Parties and Gendered Political Representation: Assessing the Impact of Bureaucratization in Candidate Selection Procedures This research project analyzes the role of political parties for women?s political representation. Political parties have been described as being responsible for the male political overrepresentation almost everywhere in the world, and thus as the most important gatekeepers for women?s political representation. Our knowledge of the mechanisms behind political parties selections of candidates is however still fairly limited, and there is a particular lack of knowledge regarding non-western political parties. This project aims at assessing this research lacuna, and in particular a factor pointed out by previous research as crucial for women?s possibilities to get selected as candidates; namely the level of bureaucratization (sometimes also referred to ?institutionalization? or ?formalization?) in selection procedures. Moreover, the project questions the argument that a large number of women in parliament by itself increases peace or generates decreased levels of corruption, and so forth. Rather, we see the need to change perspectives and to investigate the opposite causal direction: that different types of contexts and political climates give rise to different types of political priorities, which also is true for the political parties. We suggest that different types of political climates generate demands for different types of candidates and that this demand has (often unintended) gendered consequences. To examine the role that the level of bureaucratization - as well as the impact of the surrounding political climate - could have for political parties? internal selection procedures, we will carry out four comparative case studies. The base of the material will be collected during shorter field trips to four different countries where a range of party officials will be interviewed, in order to get a broad comparative view. The countries preliminary selected are Bolivia, Kenya, Georgia and Bangladesh. Here, we explicitly examine whether and how the overall political context shapes the relationship between bureaucratization and women?s political representation. Read more about the project.
The Power of Informality: The Construction of a Tacit Understanding and the Internal Practices of the Informal Economy Read more about the project.
Democratisation and its Boundaries in Post-Soviet Georgia The aim of this research project is to increase our understanding of the boundaries of democratisation by identifying the mechanisms through which conflicts over political inclusion are being managed in the multi-ethnic state of Georgia. A central point of departure is the established argument that democratisation requires a demos - the people can hardly rule until there is consensus as to who are the people. Transitions tend to be short-circuited, oftentimes violently, in the absence of such agreement. No nationality wishes to be subjugated to the will of the majority within a state dominated by another nationality. National democratisation processes therefore tend to awaken local ethnic conflicts, which often spill over into inter-state conflagrations. Departing from post-Soviet Georgia, this project investigates how such questions of political inclusion are being contested between - and within - the central government and nation-building entrepreneurs in the peripheral ethno-regions of the country. It draws on interviews with representatives of the Georgian government as well as Armenian and Azerbaijani activists from the ethno-regions of Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli, respectively. However, the project also builds on socio-linguistic experiments (matched-guise tests) created to unearth inter-ethnic attitudes. Taken together, this data enables the research project to re-construct the incentives for integration in Georgia's Armenian- and Azerbaijani borderlands. A decisive advantage, stemming from this data triangulation, is that the research project will be able to identify the social mechanisms through which conflicts over political inclusion are being managed. Read more about the project.
Institutions and Civic Education Read more about the project.
'Self-fulfilling geopolitics?' The resurgence of geopolitical thought in Europe Read more about the project.
Diskriminering i politiken - en översikt av kunskapen om strukturella hinder och bemötanden bland förtroendevalda i Sverige Uppsala universitet har på uppdrag av regeringen gjort en översikt av kunskapen om strukturella hinder och bemötanden bland förtroendvalda i SverigeI studien presenteras forskning om hur bemötandet ser ut med avseende på flera diskrimineringsgrunder. Rapporten ger också konkreta förslag på fortsatt arbete. Read more about the project.
Russian Local Government in Theory and Practice Multi-Level Government and Local Autonomy in the Oblasts of Sverdlovsk, Nizhegorod, and Tambov Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a considerable devolution of power from the national government to lower levels of government has taken place. Most of the research on this decentralisation process has focused on the growing importance of the second tier of governmental structures, the republic- and oblast’ level. The aim of my own research is to go one step further down the administrative ladder, to the level of local government. Which are the factors enabling and restraining the development of an autonomous local government? Can we even speak of a politically autonomous local government? And what is the attitude of the population at large to these developments? As one of the results of the previously mentioned decentralisation to the regional level has been a considerable regional differentiation, it is likely that the situation for local government is not uniform throughout the Russian Federation. A selection of cases therefore has been made. The focus of the study will be on the oblasts of Sverdlovsk, Nizhegorod and Tambov, and specifically on the regional centres of these three oblasts (Ekaterinburg, Nizhnii Novgorod and Tambov, respectively). Naturally, a selection of just three oblasts will out of necessity limit the potential for generalisations of the findings. It is, however, this author’s belief that the chosen oblasts are sufficiently similar in terms of constitutional status, ethnic composition and political development (all have a history of conflictual relations between the local government of the regional centre), to warrant a comparison. Simultaneously, they are sufficiently different in terms of socio-economic development and importance for the national economy, for such a comparison to be worthwhile. The overall objective of the study is the following: 1) To evaluate the level of autonomy of the local government structures in the chosen oblasts, 2) To disentangle the reasons for these differences, if any, and 3) To correlate the findings in step one and two with the public attitudes toward decentralisation and local government autonomy. The first and second of these objectives will be accomplished by a combination of analysis of relevant legislation and economic factors, and in-depth interviews with public officials of all levels of government. For information on public attitudes, I have access to a survey measuring (among many other things) popular trust in different levels of government, and whether they believe local level autonomy should be increased or decreased. Read more about the project.
Global Warming and our Natural Duties of Justice (ended) The title of my dissertation project is Global Warming and our Natural Duties of Justice . I will defend in the fall of 2007. This work takes its starting point in the empirical argument that the challenges involved in addressing the threat of human induced climate change cannot realistically be surmounted without a global form of political authority. More specifically, to make a cooperative response work what is require is a global system that can credibly ensure compliance to coordinated and global public policy for mitigating the human impact on our climate. Thus, efforts to significantly reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions cannot be achieved through weak voluntary international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. My main research problem following from this empirical assessment is the moral question of whether or not we ought to bind ourselves together with others in a global political effort that will limit the self-determination of states in ways they are not currently limited. I show that there are clear empirical and moral reasons establishing that we do have a duty to support this kind of global political project to collectively address our impact on the Earth's atmosphere. Read more about the project.
Alliances and ideas:What explains differences in political corruption in post-communist Europe? (ended) Read more about the project.

Political Parties and Women's Political Representation: Assessing the Impact of Institutionalization in Candidate Selection Procedures

Today, men hold more than 81 percent of all seats in national parliaments. Political parties monopolize candidate selection in almost all countries and they thus have a direct impact on the gendered composition of parliament. Exactly how political parties select their candidates and what types of apertures different selection procedures open for female aspirants is, however, to a large extent, still shrouded in mystery. This project analyzes the role of political parties for women?s political representation, and in particular how the level of insitutionalization in candidate selection affects women?s possibilities to be selected to legislative office.

Even though the concept of institutionalization has been highlighted as one of the most important factors for women?s possibilities to be selected as candidates, the concept itself has neither been sufficiently conceptually concretized and operationalized nor systematically compared. The project will thus start with a theoretical and empirical exploration of the concept of institutionalization in selection procedures. Secondly, an empirical examination of its relationship to women?s representation will be carried out, and finally we will bring in the political context to be able to examine whether the role of institutionalization in candidate selection is contingent on the different preferences parties are likely to have in different political climates.

The theoretical exploration of the concept will be based on previous research on political parties in developing countries, as well as literature on candidate selection processes. The empirical analysis is conducted using a new and unique data set produced by International IDEA. The data includes 176 parties in 64 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Especially relevant to the project is to survey contains questions about both the external regulations (i.e. national law) as well as the party's internal rules, formal as informal. This makes it possible to compare the importance of the parties' own formal regulations and what the respondents really think is important to have an opportunity to be selected as a candidate. We argue that an identification and comparison of this is critical to our understanding and use of the concept of institutionalization.

Read more about the project.

Political Parties and Gendered Political Representation: Assessing the Impact of Bureaucratization in Candidate Selection Procedures

This research project analyzes the role of political parties for women?s political representation. Political parties have been described as being responsible for the male political overrepresentation almost everywhere in the world, and thus as the most important gatekeepers for women?s political representation. Our knowledge of the mechanisms behind political parties selections of candidates is however still fairly limited, and there is a particular lack of knowledge regarding non-western political parties. This project aims at assessing this research lacuna, and in particular a factor pointed out by previous research as crucial for women?s possibilities to get selected as candidates; namely the level of bureaucratization (sometimes also referred to ?institutionalization? or ?formalization?) in selection procedures.

Moreover, the project questions the argument that a large number of women in parliament by itself increases peace or generates decreased levels of corruption, and so forth. Rather, we see the need to change perspectives and to investigate the opposite causal direction: that different types of contexts and political climates give rise to different types of political priorities, which also is true for the political parties. We suggest that different types of political climates generate demands for different types of candidates and that this demand has (often unintended) gendered consequences.

To examine the role that the level of bureaucratization - as well as the impact of the surrounding political climate - could have for political parties? internal selection procedures, we will carry out four comparative case studies. The base of the material will be collected during shorter field trips to four different countries where a range of party officials will be interviewed, in order to get a broad comparative view. The countries preliminary selected are Bolivia, Kenya, Georgia and Bangladesh. Here, we explicitly examine whether and how the overall political context shapes the relationship between bureaucratization and women?s political representation.

Read more about the project.

The Power of Informality: The Construction of a Tacit Understanding and the Internal Practices of the Informal Economy

Read more about the project.

Democratisation and its Boundaries in Post-Soviet Georgia

The aim of this research project is to increase our understanding of the boundaries of democratisation by identifying the mechanisms through which conflicts over political inclusion are being managed in the multi-ethnic state of Georgia.

A central point of departure is the established argument that democratisation requires a demos - the people can hardly rule until there is consensus as to who are the people. Transitions tend to be short-circuited, oftentimes violently, in the absence of such agreement. No nationality wishes to be subjugated to the will of the majority within a state dominated by another nationality. National democratisation processes therefore tend to awaken local ethnic conflicts, which often spill over into inter-state conflagrations.

Departing from post-Soviet Georgia, this project investigates how such questions of political inclusion are being contested between - and within - the central government and nation-building entrepreneurs in the peripheral ethno-regions of the country. It draws on interviews with representatives of the Georgian government as well as Armenian and Azerbaijani activists from the ethno-regions of Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli, respectively. However, the project also builds on socio-linguistic experiments (matched-guise tests) created to unearth inter-ethnic attitudes. Taken together, this data enables the research project to re-construct the incentives for integration in Georgia's Armenian- and Azerbaijani borderlands.

A decisive advantage, stemming from this data triangulation, is that the research project will be able to identify the social mechanisms through which conflicts over political inclusion are being managed.

Read more about the project.

Institutions and Civic Education

Read more about the project.

'Self-fulfilling geopolitics?' The resurgence of geopolitical thought in Europe

Read more about the project.

Diskriminering i politiken - en översikt av kunskapen om strukturella hinder och bemötanden bland förtroendevalda i Sverige

Uppsala universitet har på uppdrag av regeringen gjort en översikt av kunskapen om strukturella hinder och bemötanden bland förtroendvalda i SverigeI studien presenteras forskning om hur bemötandet ser ut med avseende på flera diskrimineringsgrunder. Rapporten ger också konkreta förslag på fortsatt arbete.

Read more about the project.

Russian Local Government in Theory and Practice
Multi-Level Government and Local Autonomy in the Oblasts of Sverdlovsk, Nizhegorod, and Tambov

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a considerable devolution of
power from the national government to lower levels of government
has taken place. Most of the research on this decentralisation process
has focused on the growing importance of the second tier of
governmental structures, the republic- and oblast’ level.
The aim of my own research is to go one step further down the
administrative ladder, to the level of local government. Which are
the factors enabling and restraining the development of an
autonomous local government? Can we even speak of a politically
autonomous local government? And what is the attitude of the
population at large to these developments? As one of the results of the
previously mentioned decentralisation to the regional level has been
a considerable regional differentiation, it is likely that the situation
for local government is not uniform throughout the Russian Federation.
A selection of cases therefore has been made.

The focus of the study will be on the oblasts of Sverdlovsk, Nizhegorod
and Tambov, and specifically on the regional centres of these three oblasts
(Ekaterinburg, Nizhnii Novgorod and Tambov, respectively). Naturally,
a selection of just three oblasts will out of necessity limit the potential
for generalisations of the findings. It is, however, this author’s belief
that the chosen oblasts are sufficiently similar in terms of constitutional
status, ethnic composition and political development (all have a history of
conflictual relations between the local government of the regional centre),
to warrant a comparison. Simultaneously, they are sufficiently different
in terms of socio-economic development and importance for the national
economy, for such a comparison to be worthwhile.

The overall objective of the study is the following:
1) To evaluate the level of autonomy of the local government structures
in the chosen oblasts,
2) To disentangle the reasons for these differences, if any, and
3) To correlate the findings in step one and two with the public attitudes
toward decentralisation and local government autonomy.

The first and second of these objectives will be accomplished by a
combination of analysis of relevant legislation and economic factors, and
in-depth interviews with public officials of all levels of government.
For information on public attitudes, I have access to a survey measuring
(among many other things) popular trust in different levels of government,
and whether they believe local level autonomy should be increased or
decreased.

Read more about the project.

Global Warming and our Natural Duties of Justice (ended)

The title of my dissertation project is Global Warming and our Natural Duties of Justice . I will defend in the fall of 2007.

This work takes its starting point in the empirical argument that the challenges involved in addressing the threat of human induced climate change cannot realistically be surmounted without a global form of political authority. More specifically, to make a cooperative response work what is require is a global system that can credibly ensure compliance to coordinated and global public policy for mitigating the human impact on our climate. Thus, efforts to significantly reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions cannot be achieved through weak voluntary international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol.

My main research problem following from this empirical assessment is the moral question of whether or not we ought to bind ourselves together with others in a global political effort that will limit the self-determination of states in ways they are not currently limited. I show that there are clear empirical and moral reasons establishing that we do have a duty to support this kind of global political project to collectively address our impact on the Earth's atmosphere.

Read more about the project.