News and Notes

Nobel Symposium Looks at Realities of Democratization

More than two dozen leading scholars of democracy and development gathered at Uppsala University, Sweden, August 27-30 for a symposium sponsored by the Nobel Foundation on "Democracy's Victory and Crisis." Among the themes addressed by the 18 papers presented were: how increasing international interdependence may affect sovereignty and accountability within the nation-state; the social and cultural conditions promoting and hampering democratic development; whether democratic government contributes to economic and social development; how different constitutional systems (and methods of constitutional design) influence the possibility of democracy; and the roles of various international actors in promoting democracy.

Coordinated by Axel Hadenius, professor of government at the University of Uppsala (with extensive involvement of faculty and graduate students from the department), the symposium was convened by an organizing committee that also included Jon Elster (University of Chicago); Partha Dasgupta (Cambridge University); Daniel Tarschys (University of Stockholm); and Carl Tham, director-general of the Swedish International Development Authority. Inquiries about the conference may be directed to Professor Axel Hadenius, Department of Government, University of Uppsala, Box 514, S-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.

Project Examines Mexican, Cuban Democratization

The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has launched a two-to-three-year research and graduate-student training project that will compare democratization processes in postrevolutionary Latin American states, beginning with Mexico and Cuba. Funded by the Ford Foundation and directed by UCSD professor Wayne Cornelius, the project is based on the thesis that stronger organizational links are needed between local prodemocratic forces and reformist leaders operating as part of national political institutions if democratic structures of governance are to be created and consolidated at both the local and national levels.

Scholars and doctoral students of any nationality whose work focuses on democratization in Mexico (or comparative aspects of democratization in Latin America with a Mexico component) may apply now for a visiting research fellowship that would bring them to the Center during the 1995-96 academic year. Applications should be requested from Graciela Platero, Fellowships Coordinator, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (fax 619-534-6447).

IPSA Members Gather for World Congress in Berlin

The International Political Science Association (IPSA) held its Sixteenth World Congress on August 21-25 in Berlin. The theme of the 1994 triennial meeting was "democratization," offering one more illustration of the central place that the study of democracy has recently come to occupy in the field of political science.

More than 50 "main theme sessions" were devoted to various aspects of democratization, organized under eight principal headings: "The Philosophy of Democracy"; "The Political/ Institutional Bases of Democratization"; "The Socio-Cultural Bases of Democratization"; "The Economic Bases of Democratization"; "The International Bases of Democratization"; "The Political Consequences of Democratization"; "The Socio-Economic Consequences of Democratization"; and "The Philosophical Constitutional Consequences of Democratization."

Internationally prominent political scientists who played key roles in organizing these sessions included Giovanni Sartori (Columbia University), Samuel H. Barnes (Georgetown University), Renata Simienska (University of Warsaw), Mikk Titma (Estonian Academy of Science), Max Kaase (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin), Chung Si Ahn (Seoul National University), and Leonardo Morlino (Universith degli Studi di Firenze). Robert E. Goodin of the Australian National University served as program chair.

The opening session of the Congress featured addresses by Rita Süssmuth, president of the German Bundestag, and IPSA president Carole Pateman of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Among the many events associated with the Congress was a reception cosponsored by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (U.K.) and the new International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy (U.S.).