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Miki Kittilson, Arizona State University, miki.kittilson@asu.edu

Richard Herrera, Arizona State University, richard.herrera@asu.edu

Consistent with the 2010 APSA conference theme of "The Politics of Hard Times:  Citizens, Nations, and the International System under Economic Stress," we invite proposals that address political organizations’ and parties’ responses to domestic and global economic calamity.  To that end, proposals might tackle questions of how the policy process is affected within changing political contexts such as: How are interest groups and other non-party organizations influencing policies designed to ease financial troubles in the U.S. and globally?  How have party responses to economic hard times been affected by political circumstances, including public opinion, and electoral concerns?  How does a changing economic environment affect the relative influences of parties and interest groups in the policy making process?  How do different electoral institutions mediate the impact of the economy on parties’ strategies and linkage capabilities? We also invite proposals that recognize that, in the midst of these “hard times,” American political parties are also confronted with midterm elections, changes in their respective presidential nomination processes, and how they respond to their status as majority party or their search for party leadership.  With changing political context as a broad theme, we are interested in receiving proposals that examine the influence of formal and informal institutions longitudinally and cross-nationally as well. 

Beyond these broad themes, we seek proposals that address new methodological and theoretical challenges in the study of organizations and parties.  We are also interested in proposals that focus on social movements, and the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity and parties, especially with regard to theories of representation.  And, we strongly encourage proposals that examine these questions in comparative perspective.  Although we will accept both panel and individual paper proposals, proposals for individual papers are easier to accommodate within the POP section.