Historical Dynamics in European Parties, Regimes, and States

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

As students of political development grapple with enduring questions of institutional stability and change, a new wave of scholarship seeks a more integrative approach, by looking at regime outcomes as embedded within processes of state building and economic development. With a focus on Europe, this panel represents innovative work in this vein, exploiting insights from the nexus of regime, state, and market development and exploring the structural and agentic determinants of political change. Amel Ahmed (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) will present findings from a study of institutional sequencing in first wave democracies. John Gerring (University of Texas, Austin) will examine how natural harbors disposed certain parts of Europe to democratization and assisted the global diffusion of democratic ideals. Agustín Goenaga (Lund University) will discuss how trust networks and mass media promoted the rise of programmatic politics at the turn of the last century. Ryan Saylor (University of Tulsa) will explore how creditors’ economic goals led them to press governments to strengthen tax institutions and professionalize bureaucracies. The panel features as discussants two esteemed scholars of European politics, Alexandra Cirone (Cornell University) and David Stasavage (New York University).

Sub Unit

• Division 15: European Politics and Society

Individual Presentations

• Institutional Sequencing and Regime Stability in the U.K., France, and Germany - Amel F. Ahmed, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• The Deep Roots of Modern Democracy - John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin; Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin; Tore Wig, University of Oslo; Andreas Forø Tollefsen, Peace Research Institute Oslo

• The Communicative Origins of Programmatic Politics - Agustin Alonso Goenaga Orrego, Lund University

• Creditor Coalitions and State Development in Early Modern Europe - Ryan Saylor, University of Tulsa

Chair

• Amel F. Ahmed University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Discussants

• Alexandra Cirone Cornell University

• David Stasavage New York University