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David Rueda, Oxford University, david.rueda@politics.ox.ac.uk
 

The theme of this year's meeting is of great relevance to the comparative politics of advanced industrial societies. The financial and economic crisis has dominated political developments since 2008, and it is likely that it will fundamentally shape politics in these countries for years to come. At the same time, the crisis represents an important challenge (and an opportunity) for political science. We must ask ourselves how successful our theories are in explaining the momentous events of the recent past.  

I invite proposals that help us understand three general issues: the causes, the nature and the consequences of the crisis. The analysis of these issues has implications for a number of crucial questions. These include (but are not limited to) the following: What explains differences, as well as similarities, within advanced industrialized societies? What role have political institutions played in the emergence of the crisis? What are the consequences of the crisis in terms of political and economic inequality? What actors and institutions should we focus on when trying to understand the crisis? What are the consequences for citizens (regarding political behavior, public opinion, mobilization, etc)? Do our theories of the state, interest groups, electoral processes, political geography, labor market institutions, international openness, policy making, and partisan agency need to be transformed? How will the crisis affect the comparative evolution of the welfare state and the protection of the most vulnerable sectors of society? Can we learn more about the way in which industrial societies have experienced the crisis by comparing them to non-industrial societies?

Proposals that engage with other fields in political science and with other disciplines, that are explicitly comparative, and that attempt to use new theoretical frameworks to address the theme for this year’s meeting are particularly welcome.