CALL FOR PAPERS

The IPSA Research Committee 34 on the Quality of Democracy (IPSA-QoD) is organizing a Workshop on the Recent Research Developments on the Quality of Democracy which will be held in Madrid on July 2012, during the IPSA World Congress. The workshop aims at examining the recent comparative research and analysis of existing democracies as systems of qualities on the basis of a comprehensive multi-dimensional framework, and at spreading off empirical and methodological knowledge produced by this new cross-cultural approach. The workshop is planned to target both methodology and empirical research and will address both the systemic and the historical dimensions of new and old democracies. Analyses of the democratic regime have been part of the core agenda in comparative politics since long ago and have known a much larger and comprehensive development over the last four decades since the beginning of the so called third wave of democratization. Southern European democracies, Eastern and Central European democracies, and Latin American transitions offered the empirical field that allowed researchers to exam fundamental mechanisms and patterns of change which are featuring democratization processes “in context”. Democratic theory is a central component of contemporary theoretical development of political scholarship and supports the empirical field that comparative political scientists have been incline to consider. More recently historical and systemic analysis of democratic regimes found a common ground in the democratic quality assessment stream. This approach involves an innovative analytical and methodological proposal which keeps altogether both qualitative and quantitative analyses to the democratic assessment and it is epistemologically committed to cast a comparative perspective on all types of democracy. The workshop is therefore planned to exam the empirical analysis of democratic processes drawing lessons from the well known scholarly tradition of the democratic theory and endorsing the multi-dimensional view of democracy which has been progressively worked out by recent research assessing the quality and changes of existing democracies. Information about the workshop theme and the submission form for paper proposals, please contact: RC34 Vice-Chair: Daniela Piana, d.piana@unibo.it The deadline for submission of paper proposals is 1st July 2011.

IPSA WORLD CONGRESS 8TH-12TH JULY 2012 IPSA-QoD will also organize at least two general panels at the IPSA World Congress in Madrid from 8-12th July 2012. Proposals for papers for the general panels are welcome concerning the above mentioned themes. The business meeting held at this event will help to initiate activities, elect officers, and expand the membership of RC. The main theme of the Madrid IPSA World Congress is 'Reshaping power, shifting boundaries'. Details are available at www.IPSA.org.