Changing Political Institutions: New Perspectives in the Study of Reforms and their Consequences

This Section aims to provide new perspectives on the reforms of political institutions. Its goal is to gather studies that examine the complex relationships between institutions, political elites and citizens, and how their interactions shape institutional reforms and their consequences. Political institutions came back at the centre of the research agenda in political in the 1990s, through two streams of research: (1) one dealing with institutional changes in general, and (2) the other with electoral system changes in particular. First, authors focusing on institutional reforms in established democracies show that changes are either the result of gradual trends in the long run (Mahoney and Thelen 2010) or follow periods of punctuated equilibria (Baumgartner and Jones 1993). This literature shows for instance how exceptional circumstances (democratic transitions, deep political crises) or long-term evolutions such as path dependency prompt institutional reforms. Still, the importance of political actors in this process, and the consequences of these reforms for political actors, are typically overlooked. Second, for years, many scholars have been interested in electoral systems and their consequences for the conduct of democracy (Duverger 1954). Since the 1990s, many studies have addressed the somehow new topic of electoral system change (Gallagher and Mitchell 2008). Yet, despite this diversification of the actors studied and the objects considered (Renwick 2010; Fournier et al. 2011;), the analytical framework remains essentially focused on political actors (Blais 2008). This section seeks to gather studies of electoral reforms that consider other types of actors. To summarize, this section aims at mixing institutional and electoral system change literatures into a general analytical framework to overcome the limits of the two. Therefore, the section invites panels and papers that will address the five following themes (non exhaustive). - Research focusing on institutional reforms in a context of political defiance, showing how this context affects reforms, but also affects the types of reforms proposed and contributes to the redefinition of the traditional representative democratic model (e-democracy, e-government, constitutional conventions…). - Research focusing on the discursive, argumentative and ideological dimensions of reform, trying to detect what political ideas and what political narratives guide the reform process, but also their impact on the content of reform. - Research addressing the impact of institutions and institutional reforms on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy and addressing more generally what citizens envision as a “good reform” or good “political institutions”. - Research interrogating the consequences of reforms, their capacity of fulfilling their initial objectives but also the reasons behind their success or failure to achieve the goals assigned (restoring political support, facilitating governability…). The Panels and Papers invited should be ideally comparative, but case studies are also welcome. The Panels and Papers will focus on political institutions broadly defined, such as parliaments, courts, federal entities, or participative and direct democratic tools. Potential Panels (with potential Panel Chairs) • The origins and effects of referendum legislation in Western democracies (chairs: Alan Renwick and Kristof Jacobs, already confirmed) • The political and economic consequences of electoral reforms • Citizens and institutional change in a context of defiance • Institutional reform procedures • The cognitive dimension of the institutional reforms Some researchers in charge of large-scale international projects related to the section’s topic has already mentioned their interest in organizing a complete panel gathering papers from their project. These include: • Electoral System Changes in Europe since 1945 • Pathways to Power: The Political Representation of Citizens of Immigrant Origin in Seven European Democracies The Section is open to complete Panels revolving around other international projects. The Section is endorsed by the ECPR Standing Group on Comparative Political Institutions. We also plan to host a roundtable where national experts discuss recent developments in institutional reforms throughout the world (Canada, Italy, Ireland, France…). Short biography of the co-convenors : Please note that we are 3 co-chairs. (thomas.ehrhard@gmail.com ; camille.bedock@gmail.com ; damien.bol@gmail.com) Camille Bedock is a FNRS postdoctoral fellow at the Université libre de Bruxelles. She obtained a PhD in political science from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence in April 2014 for which she was awarded the prize of the Association Française de Science Politique (AFSP) in Comparative Analysis. Her current research focuses on the citizens’ perception of democratic reforms. She has also worked on institutional and electoral reforms in a comparative perspective, with a specialization on France, Ireland and Italy. Her work appears in European Political Science Review, Representation, French Politics, European Review of Social Sciences, and Revue française de science politique. Damien Bol is a Lecturer in Political Behaviour at King's College London. He obtained a PhD from the Université de Louvain in January 2013, and spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montreal. His research focuses on voting behavior (mainly, strategic voting) and party strategies (mainly, decision to enter elections) in a comparative perspective, with a specific focus on the role of electoral systems. His work appears in Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Party Politics, Political Research Quarterly, European Union Politics, West European Politics, French Politics, and Revue Internationale de Politique Comparée. Thomas Ehrhard is a Visiting Lecturer at the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas and at the École Polytechnique. He obtained a PhD in political science from the University Paris II in November 2014. His thesis was awarded multiple prizes (Association Française de Science Politique (AFSP), Assemblée Nationale, Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques). His recent work focuses on the cognitive approach of electoral reforms, the reform of the bicameralism, and the relation between political parties (especially extreme right parties) and voting systems. His work appears in Revue Internationale de Politique Comparée, Pouvoirs, Gouvernement et action publique, and Cahiers du CEVIPOL.