Featured Panels

• Family Values: The Morality and Politics of the Family as a Social Institution

• Is there Life Beyond Academia?

• Political Science in the 21st Century

• The Paradoxes of Language Institutionalization at the Local Level

• The Politics of Populism and Negative Campaigning: A discussion of two books and of different conceptions of what politics is about

• Maurice Duverger (1917-2014): Evaluating the Contributions of a Political Science Giant

Family Values: The Morality and Politics of the Family as a Social Institution
Sponsored by the Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP) and the ECPR Standing Group on Political Theory
 

Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift's recent book Family Values (Princeton University Press, 2014) presents an integrated theoretical approach to a wide range of controversial normative issues concerning the family. It addresses questions concerning parents' rights to shape their children's values, their right to confer advantage on their children, and adults' right to parent their biological children. In this Panel, the authors engage with a number of distinguished political theorists, defending their views of the distinct goods of familial relationships against a number of criticisms. The Panel is sponsored by the journal Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP), which will publish the debate as a symposium in a forthcoming issue, and the ECPR Standing Group on Political Theory.

Time 0900 - 1040, Thursday 27 August

Location Room B-3245, Jean-Brillant

Chair: Richard Bellamy (University College London and European University Institute)

Speakers

• Richard Bellamy (University College London and European University Institute)
• Harry Brighouse (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Andree-Anne Cormier (Université de Montréal)
• Anca Gheaus (University of Sheffield)
• Sarah Hannan (University of Manitoba)
• Adam Swift (University of Warwick)
• Christine Sypnowich (Queens University)
• Daniel Weinstock (McGill University)

Is there Life Beyond Academia?
Sponsored by the ECPR Graduate Student Network (GSN)

In this Roundtable we will discuss opportunities for young researchers once they have obtained their PhD. Speakers will tell us about their experiences and representatives from private companies will let us know what they have to offer to graduate students. In short, the aim of this Roundtable is to give some food for thought about the following: is there life beyond Academia?

Time 1100 - 1240, Friday 28 August

Location Room B-3240, Jean-Brillant

Chair: Rosa Navarrete (Universität Mannheim)

Speakers tbc

Political Science in the 21st Century
Sponsored by the American Political Science Association (APSA)

Like other social science disciplines, political science is facing calls for greater research transparency and accountability and more policy relevance and public engagement.  The discipline is also very diverse on many dimensions: methods, geography, institutional setting, and demographically.  It has grown world-wide with the accompanying proliferation of academic journals.  This Panel will address the challenges and opportunities facing political science around the world and strategies to promote more member engagement and responsiveness to current trends to higher education and public policy. 

Time 1100 - 1240, Saturday 29 August

Location Room C-3145, Lionel Groulx

Chair: Steven Smith (American Political Science Association)

Speakers

• Rudy Andeweg (Universiteit Leiden)
• Guy Lachapelle (Concordia University)
• Rachel Laforest (Queen's University, Canada)

The Paradoxes of Language Institutionalization at the Local Level
Sponsored by the International Political Science Association (IPSA)

This Panel inserts itself in the discussion proposed in the Section "Identity and the Challenge of Transformation". The Panel brings together Papers that explore the relationships between the State and local institutions, with regards to language policies. Specifically, the authors question the alignment between national and local language regimes. In the context of a France/Canada comparative research, we started by pointing out a paradox. While the language regime in France appears rather resistant to minority languages, the local scene provides opportunities for linguistic initiatives. In contrast, while the federal Canadian language framework confirms French and English as official languages, local initiatives supporting the development of official languages, particularly with respect to French outside of Quebec, seem more difficult to carry out. Using this paradox as a starting point, the communications of this Panel analyze various forms of territorial language institutionalization. Furthermore, the comparative dimension is present throughout this Panel. It will serve to clarify the factors presiding over the choice of language policies at the local level. In this regard, federalism is an essential variable in the Canadian context. The comparison also reveals other variables that are worth exploring. Indeed, the cases brought forward focus on the impact of borders (between France and Spain in the Basque case, between Quebec and Ontario in the Franco-Ontarian case and between Quebec and New Brunswick in the Acadian case). Case studies in the field of economic development, as well as local and school politics are used to document the process and to further the study of language regimes at the local level.

The Papers collected in this Panel explore the relationship between the State and local institutions, in regards to language policies.

Time 1750 - 1930, Friday 28 August

Location Room C-2082, Lionel-Groulx

Chair: Linda Cardinal (University of Ottawa)

Speakers

• Linda Cardinal (University of Ottawa)
• Marie Helene Eddie (University of Ottawa) - Debating Language Rights at the Local Level: The Case of Bilingual Signage in New Brunswick
• Jean-Baptiste Harguindéguy (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
• Xabier Itcaina (European University Institute) and Jean-Baptiste Harguindéguy (Universidad Pablo de Olavide) - When Institutional Innovation comes from the Local: The Emergence of Basque Language Policy in France
• Anne Mevellec (University of Ottawa) and Linda Cardinal (University of Ottawa) - The construction of an agri-food space in French in Eastern Ontario
• Martin Normand (Université de Montréal) - School Boards and Municipalities in la francophonie canadienne: Enderestimated Places of Power?

The Politics of Populism and Negative Campaigning: A discussion of two books and of different conceptions of what politics is about
Sponsored by ECPR Press

This Panel discusses two recent books, European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession (edited by Hanspeter Kriesi and Takis S Pappas), and New Perspectives on Negative Campaigning. Why Attack Politics Matters (edited by Alessandro Nai and Annemarie Walter). But by discussing populism and negative campaigning, it wants also to discuss the understanding of politics that lies behind these two phenomena.

The authors will discuss both the phenomena and the particular contributions that their books make to understanding them. While the focus of the book on populism is on the effects of the financial and economic crisis in Europe, and how this has re-energised populist politics; the focus of the book on negative campaigning is on causes and effects of this way of conceiving political struggle.

Time 1550 - 1730, Friday 28 August

Location Room B-3250, Jean-Brillant

Chairs: Alexandra Segerberg (Stockholm University) and Dario Castiglione (University of Exeter)

Speakers:

• Zsolt Enyedi (Central European University)
• Vlastimil Havlík (Masaryk University)
• Alessandro Nai (University of Geneva)
• Anders Ravik Jupskås (Universitetet i Oslo)

Maurice Duverger (1917-2014): Evaluating the Contributions of a Political Science Giant

Maurice Duverger died at age 97 in 2014. One of the major figures in twentieth century political science, he made seminal contributions in areas such as the structure of party organisation, the impact of electoral laws, and the analysis of forms of constitutional structure, especially the nature of the executive, as well as contributing to the scientific study of legal systems. His work is critical in the development of the art and science of political engineering. While many scholars whose most important work was done decades ago have found their visibility and reputation fading, Duverger has experienced an international renaissance, with Duverger's Law of electoral systems now widely recognised as one of the handful of findings about politics that has demonstrated both continued empirical applicability and strong theoretical underpinnings, earning its labeling as a "law". In this Panel we mainly look at one aspect of the Duverger's work, the electoral systems and their effects, to better understand his ideas and their lasting influence, while also appreciating the way in which newer scholarship has led to significant amendments to his original formulations.

Time 1550 - 1730, Thursday 27 August

Location Room B-3345, Jean-Brillant

Chair: Annie Laurent (Institut d'Études Politiques de Lille)

Speakers:

• Jean-Benoit Pilet (Université Libre de Bruxelles) on 'Duverger Upside Down? How Big Parties are using Electoral Systems to Prevent the Emergence of Smaller Parties'
• Gary Cox (Stanford University) on 'Duverger’s Law from the Top Down'
• André Blais (Université de Montréal) on 'Duverger's Law is Wrong But...'