The Research Committees 08 (Legislative Specialists) and 13 (Democratization in Comparative Perspective) of the International Political Science Association jointly set up a conference within the Southern Political Science Association‘s Annual Conference, held January 11 to 14, 2023 at St Pete Beach in Florida. Conference organizers Irina Khmelko (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, USA), Adam Szymański (University…
Providing redress for maladministration is a key requirement of any legitimate system of public service delivery. During the 6th. International Conference on Public Policy, held in Toronto, Canada, 27-29 June 2023, Eckart Schroeter and Sven T. Siefken organize a panel that explores different ways of holding public authorities and agents of public service delivery accountable….
The European Parliament has been active in supporting and strengthening parliaments around the globe. Looking back at 10 years of activities, the EP Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group organized a high-level-conference in Brussels to discuss experiences and the way forward, November 29 to 30, 2022. Sven T. Siefken participated as an academic commentator. More…
Visiting the Assemblée nationale on the occasion of the price awarded to colleague Claire Bloquet for their dissertation “On the outskirts of the French Parliament: The Delegation for Women’s Rights”. A grand ceremony, talks with policy makers and parliamentary administrators and the opportunity to watch question time in parliament. More about the prize here.
Sven T. Siefken presented the international research collaboration “Parliaments in the Pandemic” during the workshop “Parliaments, Crisis and Foresight” of the Inter Pares Steering Committee. It was held in Dublin, Ireland. Inter Pares is a project of the European Commission that is implemented by International IDEA. It brings together parliaments from the EU members states and…
Work in the office of a member of parliament is very dynamic and has particular challenges. Teams are small, hierachies flat, changes frequent – and the work is very fast-paced. At the same time, there are important connections to the district office. In a workshop with the entire team of an MP from both offices…
The study abroad program at Colorado College has a long tradition; students spend a few months in Germany, learn the language and take regular classes, too. In 2022, Sven T. Siefken organized a field trip to the Bundestag for the current group of students in Berlin. After an introductory lecture and discussion, the group met…
In the German Studies Association conference in Houston, Texas, Barbara Donovan, Eric Langenbacher and Sven T. Siefken convened a three-day seminar on the “New Challenges to German Politics and Policy”. Scholars from the United States, Canada and Germany presented their research and discussed the findings. Sven T. Siefken presented a paper on Changes or Constitency…
The 2022 class by Sven T. Siefken at Colorado College takes an in-depth look at how people can make a difference in parliamentary politics. In a comparative perspective on the European parliamentary democracies, we study civic culture and political activism, look at candidate nomination and the electoral system and at how to run an election…
In-depth analysis in the international collaboration on “Parliaments in the Pandemic” underway. Based on the expert panel survey (comprising 380 questions), researchers will now analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected parliaments. Nine Working Groups have been installed for the analysis. More about the collaboration on Parliaments in the Pandemic: https://ipsa-rcls.org/pip