Cent er f or t he St udy of Democr acy Organized Research Unit ( ORU) Universit y of Calif ornia, Irvine Fall 2004 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRACY In 2004, more than 60 nations around the world are holding elections. Nearly 2 billion people-- including Americans--will trek to the polls to select their government and make their views known to their political leaders. This marks a dramatic change in recent history. Until very recently the total number of people living in democracies was far smaller than just the number voting in 2004. In the last two decades, citizens from Afghanistan to Indonesia to the states of the former Soviet Empire have embraced democracy. The recent World Values Survey suggests that democratic aspirations exist on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Delivers the nearly a global scale as a common human value. Peltason Lecture Yet, the existence of fair and free elections remains a challenge in many nations. Senator Edward M. Kennedy has been described as one And electoral democracy is just the beginning-- of the most influential legislators in American history. real democracy requires much more. Even in the He delivered the annual Peltason Lecture at UC established democracies, substantial democratic Irvine, discussing the challenges of health policy and challenges remain. economic security facing the nation to an overflow The Center for the Study of Democracy audience of more than a thousand people. is one of the largest and oldest academic centers Kennedy spoke about Americans need for health in America that focuses on the development of care, and the special problems this poses for senior democracy. The Center sponsors research and citizens and the poor–and how government could do more to ensure that research and policy reform education aimed at improving the democratic improves the well-being of Americans. He discussed process in the United States and expanding the need for more educational opportunities and democracy around the world. This newsletter educational performance, and for the government to outlines our activities of the past year, and deliver on its promises for change. Kennedy stressed illustrates our efforts to help democracy continue that these needs continue at home, even while we to expand and improve the life of its citizens. fight and fund a continuing war in Iraq. Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate since he was first elected in 1962 to finish the term of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. Since Come visit us at: then, he has been re-elected seven times, and he is www.democ.uci .edu now the second most senior member of the Senate. Kennedy’s address is available on the CSD website: www.democ.uci.edu/kennedy/ CSD Center f or the St udy of Democr acy The Economic Policy Consequences DISCUSSING DEMOCRACY of Electoral Systems: The 2003-04 Eckstein Lecture The Center has hosted the following speakers and lectures during the 2003-04 academic year: Can proportional representation (PR) electoral David Butler, Nuffield College, Oxford systems survive globalization? University, Fifty Years of British Electoral Although Harry Eckstein History consistently debunked claims that PR was inimical to Josep M. Colomer, CIDE, Mexico, The democracy, he readily Choice of Political Institutions accepted the political effects of electoral systems. Earlier Denish D’Souza, Hoover Institution, Stanford research demonstrated that University, Has America Become an Empire? PR leads to more Leftist The Implications for World Peace governments, higher overall taxation and spending, greater power for producers Sheri Kunovich, Ohio State University, (including organized labor), and greater redistribution and Pathways to Power: The Role of Political less economic inequality. More recent research strongly Parties in Women’s National Political suggests that PR systems innovate less and adapt less well to Representation the demands of a rapidly globalizing economy. Other findings imply that PR thrives only where economic Gara LaMarche, Open Society Institute, The inequality is low. Rogowksi links these arguments and War on Terrorism and its Effects on considers whether the pressures of globalization will Democracy Around the World increasingly disadvantage PR regimes. Noranit Setabutr and a delegation from the Ronald Rogowski specializes in comparative politics and King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI), Thailand political economy. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton discussed comparative research in East Asia. University, and Harry Eckstein was his thesis advisor. His book Commerce and Coalitions explores how inter- Jan van Schagen and a delegation from the national trade shapes domestic political coalitions. In 1999, Dutch Ministry of the Interior, Potential the American Political Science Association honored him by Reforms of the Dutch Electoral System. organizing a roundtable discussion to commemorate the tenth anniversary of its publication. His earlier book, Carsten Schneider, European University Rational Legitimacy; A Theory of Political Support, is a Institute, The Consolidation of 'Third Wave' critical study of political culture. Democracies: An Analysis of Six World Regions Using New Data and Methods The Eckstein Lecture is a memorial to the co-founder of the Center, Harry Eckstein, whose research and Yuliya Tverdova, SUNY Binghamton, Cross- publications focused on understanding the conditions national Variation in Sociotropic Economic fostering democracy. Evaluations: Stanley Winer, Carelton University, Tinpots, Totalitarians (and democrats): An Empirical Rogowski’s Eckstein Lecture will be available online at the CSD Investigation of the Effects of Economic paper website: repositories.cdlib.org/csd. Growth on Civil Liberties and Political Rights CSD-2 CSD Center f or the St udy of Democr acy New Research Grants Living and Learning: An to CSD Faculty Intellectual Journey in Race, Law, and Politics: Center faculty received the following major research grants during the 2003-04 academic year to conduct The Department of Political Science and the research on the democratic process in the United States CSD hosted Lucius Barker who delivered a and internationally. Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow Lecture at UC Irvine. Lucius Barker spoke of his life and Frank D. Bean and Louis DeSipio are part of a project of professional career, beginning in rural Louisiana the Center for Research on Immigration, Population and and ending as an endowed professor at Stanford Public Policy that received a $1.7 million grant from the University. Barker’s career spanned the historic Russell Sage Foundation to study the social mobility of change in race relations, beginning with the immigrant groups in Los Angeles. Brown vs. Board of Education ruling when he was a graduate student at the University of Linda Cohen received the Gilbert S. White Research Illinois, to the civil rights struggle that Fellowship from Resources for the Future in Washington transformed American during the next several DC. to study environmental law. decades. He discussed how the institutions of democratic politics, especially the courts, Russell Dalton and W. Philips Shively received played a role in this historic transformation. $137,000 from the National Science Foundation to He concluded his address by discussing the conduct the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems problems of tolerance and diversity that still survey during the 2004 U.S. elections. exist in America, and how further progress can be made. Bernard Grofman received a $25,000 grant from the Borchard Foundation to organize an international Professor Barker is one of America’s leading conference on the electoral rules in France, the UK and scholars in the fields of judicial process, the U.S. constitutional law and African-American politics. His book Civil Liberties and the David Smith, Michael Timberlake and Jeffrey Kentor Constitution is a classic text in the field. received $50,000 from the National Science Foundation African Americans and the Political System for "Collaborative Research: Globalization and the (with Mack Jones and Katherine Tate) Network of Global Cities". comprehensively addresses the political aspects of the African American experience in the Kaare Strom and Torbjörn Bergman, “Nordic United States. He is now finishing a political- Parliamentary Democracy,” Nordic Committee on legal biography of former U.S. Supreme Court Research Cooperation [NOS-S], 2004-06. SEK 1,800,000 Justice, Thurgood Marshall. ($248,300). Team Research Grant. Barker moved to Stanford University in 1990 Katherine Tate is co-Principal Investigator on a $77,500 where he became the William Bennett Munro grant from the National Science Foundation to study Professor. He was previously the Edna Fischel "Black Public Opinion, the Supreme Court, and the Gellhorn Professor at Washington University, University of Michigan Affirmative Action Decision". St. Louis. He has served as President for the American Political Science Association, the Wang Feng is part of a multi-university research group Midwest Political Science Association, and that received $120,000 from the Smith Richardson National Political Science Association. He was Foundation to conduct a national survey in China on the the founding editor of the National Political perceptions of distributive justice and factors affecting Science Review. He is a Fellow of the these attitudes. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. CSD-3 CSD Center f or the St udy of Democr acy Perceptions of Distributive Justice Bren Foundation Gift to the Peltason