FollowIreland Stat, a pilot Government level performance measurement website, has recently being launched by the the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Continue reading
IBIS Film Screening “As If I Am Not There”
The Institute for British Irish Studies (IBIS) and the School of Politics and International Relations in University College Dublin (UCD) would like to invite you to the screening of the movie As If I Am Not There on Tuesday, the 6th of November 2012, 6-8pm in theatre 1, Newman Building, University College Dublin (UCD). The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film director Juanita Wilson.
Juanita Wilson’s debut feature, As If I Am Not There, serves as a timely reminder of the atrocities suffered during the Bosnian War of the 1990s, and the difficulty in resuming any sense of normality in its aftermath. The drama is taken from true stories revealed during the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.
Samira is a modern schoolteacher in Sarajevo who takes a job in a small country village just as the war is beginning to ramp up. When Serbian soldiers overrun the village, shoot the men and keep the women as labourers (the older ones) and sex objects (the younger ones), Samira is subjected to the basest form of treatment imaginable.
Oscar nominated and IFTA winning filmmaker Juanita Wilson is a renowned Irish director and writer from Dublin. She has been awarded an Irish Film and Television Award for best film, best script, and best director, among other international recognition.
SPIRe Seminar Week 7: “Can’t Buy Me Love? New Evidence on Vote Buying in the United Nations General Assembly.”
SPIRe’s Dr. Samuel Brazys and Dr. Adrian O’Hagan of UCD Statistics will be presenting their paper (along with Prof. Diana Panke of the University of Freiburg) titled “Can’t Buy Me Love? New Evidence on Vote Buying in the United Nations General Assembly” Thursday November 1st from 13:00-14:00 in G317 Newman (Arts) Building, UCD Belfield.
“The notion that powerful states influence the votes of their weaker counterparts in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was first advanced over 40 years ago. The most common line of reasoning is that powerful states make strategic use of foreign aid to “buy” votes – using aid either as an inducement or a threat. However, despite the decades of intervening research, there is little consensus on if, when, or how such a practice occurs. This paper sheds new light on the question in three ways. First we look at UNGA voting behavior between aid-recipient countries and their respective primary donors in any given year. Second, we code and track individual resolutions across time in order to evidence any shifts in recipient country voting patterns in response to changes in developmental aid payments. Finally, we conduct interviews with diplomats from selected donors and recipients in order to seek a further understanding of the mechanisms by which vote buying may occur. Our findings suggest that while explicit aid-for-vote exchanges appear to be uncommon, there may be a considerable “friendship” dividend wherein aid recipients align themselves with major donors over time.”
SPIRe’s Prof. David Farrell wins PSAI Annual Book Prize
The Political Science Association of Ireland (PSAI) recently awarded its Brian Farrell book prize to SPIRe’s Prof. David Farrell. The prize is awarded annually for the best book published in political science by a member of the Political Studies Association of Ireland. Prof. Farrell received the prize along with co-authors Russell J. Dalton and Ian McAllister for their book Political Parties and Democratic Linkage: How Parties Organize Democracy published by Oxford University Press in 2011.
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SPIRe Lecturers share thoughts on the US presidential debates.
Two SPIRe lecturers have recently shared their thoughts on the US presidential debates on RTE Radio 1’s Today with Pat Kenny. Dr. Graham Finlay discussed the first debate here, while Dr. Samuel Brazys discussed the second and third debates.
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SPIRe Seminar Week 6: “Family and the EU: A New Relationship”
SPIRe PhD student Deirdre Tinney will be presenting her research on “Family and the EU: A New Relationship” at this week’s SPIRe seminar meeting on Thursday Oct. 25th from 13:00-14:00 in G317 Newman Building. All are welcome.
SPIRe Seminar Series EXTRA: Ms Saraswathi Menon Director of Policy, UN Women
SPIRe’s Institute for British Irish Studies (IBIS), in collaboration with the University of Ulster Transitional Justice Institute is please to welcome Ms Saraswathi Menon Director of Policy, UN Women to discuss the “UNSC Resolution 1325 and the Work of UN Women” on October 25th from 3-4pm (15:00-16:00) in the Research Boardroom of the UCD Research Building. All are welcome but space is limited to please RSVP to ibis@ucd.ie by October 23rd.
Back to the future? Fascism in Europe 21st century-style
SPIRe’s Prof. Daniel Thomas discusses the danger of a neo-fascist response to the EU debt crisis at eurodebate.ie.
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Upcoming Event: “Deliberation in practice: the use of mini-publics in contemporary democracies”
Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street
November 2 2012
1.15-5.30pm
An event organised by We the Citizens, in cooperation with the Royal Irish Academy and the G1000 (Belgium)
This event is designed to coincide with the establishment of the Irish government’s constitutional convention. This is the first time an Irish government has involved ordinary citizens in discussions about constitutional reform. Mini-publics may be a relatively new phenomenon to Ireland, but their use is quite widespread in a number of other countries, such as the Icelandic constitutional council, the British Columbia citizens’ assembly, the Dutch citizens’ forum, or the Belgian G1000 citizen summit. This event aims at reviewing these and other examples of deliberation in practice.
The participants include some of the world’s leading experts in the field:
- Ken Carty (University of British Columbia) – the academic director of the British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly (Canada)
- Henk van der Kolk (University of Twente) – the academic director of the Dutch Bürgerforum
- Erikur Bergmann (Bifrost University) – former member of the Icelandic Constitutional Council
- Didier Caluwaerts (VrijeUniversiteitBrussel, Belgique), Min Reuchamps (Universitécatholique de Louvain, Belgique), Peter Vermeersch (University of Leuven) – members of the academic team of the G1000 citizen summit (Belgium)
- David Farrell (UCD), Eoin O’Malley (DCU) and Jane Suiter (DCU) – members of the academic team of We the Citizens (Ireland)
- Other academics specializing in the study of deliberation, including: André Bächtiger (Universität Luzern), Gemma Carney (NUIG), Patrick Fournier (University of Montreal), Clodagh Harris (UCC), Kaisa Herne (Turku University), Gerry Stoker (Southampton University)
To register, please contact Claudia Saba claudia.saba@ucdconnect.ie
For more information, David Farrell David.Farrell@ucd.ie
Proposals for local government reform – a step in the right direction?
Yesterday saw the publication of the government’s long-awaited proposals for local government reform. Putting People First sets out in (over 200 pages of) detail proposals for the most radical overhaul of local government in Ireland in the history of the state. Doubtless there will be much debate over the merits of the proposals (and certainly the proposal to kill off town councils has already attracted criticism, much of that from obvious quarters). But what can’t be denied is that the proposals are ambitious and, if implemented, would do much to improve this vital dimension of governance. Continue reading