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University of California, Irvine
Department of Political Science |
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Democracy
Studies
Democracy Studies
at UCI integrates comparative politics and American politics in the study of
both established and emerging democracies. UCI has become one of the
leading places in the world to study empirical democratic theory. Nineteen
Department faculty (Matthew
Beckmann,
Russell Dalton,
Martha Feldman,
Louis DeSipio,
Bernard Grofman,
Marek Kaminski, Diana Kapiszewski,
Claire Kim,
Anthony McGann,
Jack Peltason,
Mark Petracca,
Charles "Tony" Smith,
Dorothy Solinger,
Rein Taagepera,
William R. Schonfeld,
Katherine Tate,
Yuliya Tverdova,
Martin Wattenberg,
and
Carole Uhlaner),
are very active scholars in these areas. Department faculty are joined
by nearly two dozen sociologists and economists (including
Edward Armenta,
Nina Bandelj,
Frank Bean,
Catherine
Bolzendahl,
Teresa Caldeira,
David Frank,
Wang Feng,
David Meyer,
Francesca Polletta,
Jen'nan Ghazal Read,
Belinda Robnett-Olsen,
David Smith,
David Snow,
Judith Stepan-Norris,
and
Yang Su
in Sociology; and
Linda Cohen,
Amihai Glazer,
Stergios Skaperdas,
and
Donald Saari
in Economics) in organizing a set of core courses in democracy studies administered under the umbrella of the
Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD). These courses are organized in five areas: democratic transitions and
consolidation, institutional mechanisms for democratic governance, race and
ethnicity, political economy and the economics of governance, and social
movements and collective action. The program in Democracy Studies also
involves the research and participation conference participation of
political science faculty in other University of California Political
Science Departments, such as
Arend Lijphart,
Matthew Shugart
and
Kaare Strom
at UC San Diego,
Shaun Bowler
at UC Riverside, and
Barbara Sinclair
at UCLA. Political scientists from universities from around the world
interested in topics such as electoral systems and constitutional design,
public opinion, interest groups and social movements regularly come as
visitors to UCI.
For more information on
graduate training in Comparative Politics and American Politics with a focus
on Democracy studies and fellowship opportunities for graduate students in
this area <click
here>.
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Matthew Beckmann
studies Washington politics, particularly the White House and Congress.
His overriding goal is to better understand the strategic interplay
between Washington’s key players as they decide federal policy. |
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Russell Dalton is a leading
scholar of comparative political behavior and noted expert on German
politics. He has written extensively on the linkages between mass
electoral and non-electoral politics, political parties, and
governmental outputs and public policies. His latest publications
include Democracy Transformed? The Expansion of Citizen Access
in Advanced Industrial Democracies
(Oxford University Press 2003) and Parties without Partisans:
Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies
(Oxford University Press 2001). |
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Louis Desipio's
scholarship in American politics focuses on how American institutions
facilitate and impede the political incorporation of Latino immigrants.
He is also an expert in the field of American elections at the national,
state, and local levels.
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Martha Feldman, the
Johnson Chair in Social Ecology, has published widely in the field of
public policy analysis and organizational theory. |
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Bernie Grofman is an
authority on American politics and American political institutions. His
co-edited book on the politics of racial redistricting in the South,
Quiet Revolution (Princeton University Press), won the Richard Fenno
Prize for best book published in Legislative Politics in 1994. He
is also
a leading scholar of comparative
electoral systems.
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Marek Kaminski teaches
game theoretic modeling at both the graduate and undergraduate levels,
which is also the basis of a number of his publications.
His scholarship
focuses on democratization in Poland; he is the author of Games
Prisoners Play (Princeton University
Press 2004). |
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[No Photo Available]
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Diana Kapiszewski
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Claire Jean Kim
teaches jointly in the Political Science and Asian American Studies
Departments on race relations in presidential politics and public
policy, as well as urban politics, and has produced works on American race relations and the
nature of power in American politics.
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Anthony McGann works
on models of collective decision-making and party competition, with
application to European party systems. He also teaches graduate
quantitative methods courses.
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Jack Peltason
is a
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a past vice
president of the American Political Science Association. He is an expert on
American constitutional politics and American political institutions. He has
written on the constitution, the courts, state and local government, and the
American political process. In addition, Peltason is one of the leading figures
in American higher education: he is the former President of the University of
California, former Chancellor of UCI, former Chancellor of the University of
Illinois, and past president of the American Council on Education.
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Mark Petracca is an
expert on American, state, and local politics, and is also one of the
Department's award-winning teachers in the field of American
governmental institutions, particularly, the U.S. Congress and the
American presidency. |
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William Schonfeld,
teaching and scholarship pertains to questions of governance and
political socialization in a comparative framework. He is a noted
expert of French politics and political parties in France. The
comparative politics graduate program functions as well as it does
because it is very closely linked with the multidisciplinary
Center for the Study of Democracy
(CSD) directed by William Schonfled.
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Charles "Tony" Smith's
research is
grounded in the American judiciary but encompasses work in both comparative and
international frameworks using a variety of methodologies. The unifying theme of
his research is how institutions and the strategic interaction of the political
actors relate to democratic theory.
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Dorothy Solinger is a foremost
scholar of Chinese politics with a specialization in political
economy. She has a number of leading publications in this area,
including her latest book, Contesting Citizenship in Urban
China (University of California
Press), won the 2001 Joseph R. Levenson prize by the Association of
Asian Studies for the best book on 20th century published
in 1999.
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Rein Taagepera is a
leading expert of comparative electoral systems and voting behavior,
and also some experience in Eastern European politics.
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Katherine Tate offers courses in
American government, public opinion and voting behavior. Her recent
scholarship touches on questions of race in American legislative
politics, notably, her recent book, Black Faces in the Mirror:
African Americans and Their Representatives in Congress
(Princeton University Press, 2003).
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[No Photo Available]
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Yuliya Tverdova is
interested in the study of public opinion and political behavior in
post-communist countries of East Central Europe and the Former Soviet
Union. In particular, her research focuses on the formation of economic
perceptions and sources of democratic support within the region, as well
as in comparison with established democracies. In her new projects, Yuliya
looks at the executive popularity in Russia, and public views on
corruption in cross-national perspective.
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Carole Uhlaner is
a specialist in the field of American political behavior, including
partisanship among U.S. Latinos, and she offers courses in these areas
as well as courses on comparative political behavior and Canadian
politics. |
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Martin Wattenberg
teaches and has produced a number of publications in the field of
American elections and American political parties. His most recent work
includes Where Have All the Voters Gone? (Harvard University
Press, 2002).
He also
has numerous publications on political behavior in comparative
politics. |
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