Party Crashers: The Political Logic of Legislative Institutionalization Under Single-Party Rule

Wednesday, April 1, 2015
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(Pacific)

Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall 3rd Floor Central

616 Serra Street,

Stanford, CA 94305

Speaker: 
  • Paul Schuler

Co sponsored by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

In Hanoi on November 2, 2010, a member of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) stood before the National Assembly (VNA) and on live television called for a vote of confidence in the prime minister—a sitting member of the Politburo. The speech immediately gained national attention, and the delegate’s face graced the front page of at least one prominent state-run news media outlet. Considering the docility of other communist legislatures, such as China’s, is the VNA unique in its influence? If so, how did it acquire such prominence?

Prof. Schuler will challenge existing theories on legislative institutionalization under authoritarian rule that emphasize the co-optation of opposition groups and the stabilization of internal power-sharing arrangements. He will argue instead that legislative institutionalization in this case was designed to professionalize the legislature to generate a more coherent legal code. In doing so, rather than providing more routinized avenues for participation among existing political forces, as existing theories suggest, the institutionalization of the VNA empowered a new, and sometimes unpredictable, set of actors. In his talk he will also pursue this insight comparatively in relation to China among other authoritarian polities.

Paul Schuler will be an assistant professor in government and public policy at the University of Arizona starting this fall. His publications have appeared in the American Political Science Review, the Legislative Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of East Asian Studies among other places. His researches focuses on institutions, elite politics, and public opinion in authoritarian regimes, particularly Vietnam.  His 2014 PhD in political science is from the University of California, San Diego.