Stanford University

Governance

FSI's research on the origins, character and consequences of government institutions spans continents and academic disciplines. The institute’s senior fellows and their colleagues across Stanford examine the principles of public administration and implementation. Their work focuses on how maternal health care is delivered in rural China, how public action can create wealth and eliminate poverty, and why U.S. immigration reform keeps stalling. 

FSI’s work includes comparative studies of how institutions help resolve policy and societal issues. Scholars aim to clearly define and make sense of the rule of law, examining how it is invoked and applied around the world. 

FSI researchers also investigate government services – trying to understand and measure how they work, whom they serve and how good they are. They assess energy services aimed at helping the poorest people around the world and explore public opinion on torture policies. The Children in Crisis project addresses how child health interventions interact with political reform. Specific research on governance, organizations and security capitalizes on FSI's longstanding interests and looks at how governance and organizational issues affect a nation’s ability to address security and international cooperation.

China's Looming Challenges

The 'rise of China' has become the preoccupation of policymakers, academics, and business leaders from the United States and Japan to Europe. But as Bloomberg News argued in a recent editorial, "they should be more concerned about what happens if the country's growth falters." A China whose growth is slowing would mean a China with less capital to invest, at home and globally, and whose markets and economy would be less able to provide an engine of growth for others, close at hand in Asia and in North America and Europe.

China and the World

The Stanford China Program, in cooperation with the Center for East Asian Studies, will host a special series of seminars to examine China as a major political and economic actor on the world stage. Over the course of the autumn and winter terms, leading scholars will examine China’s actions and policies in the new global political economy. What is China’s role in global governance? What is the state of China’s relations with its Asian neighbors? Is China being more assertive both diplomatically as well as militarily? Are economic interests shaping its foreign policies?

Thailand’s Long Endgame: Crises, Coups, Prospects

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Co-sponsored by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and the Southeast Asia Program

The recent reversal of democracy in Thailand has been rapid, dramatic, and increasingly thorough. Generals in civilian guise now manage the country. Their coup in May restored, in effect, a Cold War-era nexus of the military, the monarchy, and the bureaucracy. That trinity thwarted communism and enabled development but fell victim to its own success, as formerly marginalized Thais became vocal stakeholders seeking better lives. Democracy and growth spawned new wealth and new players, triggering sharp conflicts among elites competing for the first time for mass support. In the fading twilight of a gloried monarch, Thai politics before and since the 2014 coup amount to a long and no-longer latent endgame over the weighting and balancing of royalty, bureaucracy, and military, and the implications for democracy. Prof. Pongsudhirak will construe the contest and assess the stakes for Thailand, Southeast Asia, and the larger world.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is an associate professor in Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science. A prolific and prize-winning author, his latest writings include articles on Thai politics in the Journal of Democracy and on the Mekong region in Foreign Affairs. He taught at the University of Yangon earlier this year and has been a visiting scholar at, among other places, SAIS (2011) and Stanford (2010). His alma maters include the London School of Economics (PhD) and UC-Santa Barbara (BA).

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Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall Central, 3rd Floor.

Stanford, CA 94305

Thitinan Pongsudhirak

Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa St.
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-3052
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FSI-Stanford Humanities Center International Visiting Scholar

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is a high-profile expert on contemporary political, economic, and foreign-policy issues in Thailand today  He is also a prolific author; witness his op ed, "Moving beyond Thaksin," in the 25 February 2010 Wall Street Journal.

Pongsudhirak is not senior in years, but he is in stature.  His career path has been meteoric since he earned his BA in political science with distinction at UC-Santa Barbara not long ago. In 2001 he received the United Kingdom's Best Dissertation Prize for his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics on the political economy of Thailand's 1997 economic crisis.

Since 2006 he has held an associate professorship in international relations at Thailand's premier institution of higher education, Chulalongkorn University, while simultaneously heading the Institute of Security and International Studies, the country's leading think tank on foreign affairs.

His many publications include: "After the Red Uprising," Far East Economic Review, May 2009; "Why Thais Are Angry," The New York Times, 18 April 2009; "Thailand Since the Coup," Journal of Democracy, October-December 2008; and "Thaksin: Competitive Authoritarian and Flawed Dissident," in Dissident Democrats: The Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia, ed. John Kane et al. (2008).  He has written on bilateral free-trade areas in Asia, co-authored a book on Thailand's trade policy, and is admired by Southeast Asianist historians for having insightfully revisited, in a 2007 essay, the sensitive matter of Thailand's role during World War II.

He was a Salzburg Global Seminar Faculty Member in June 2009, Japan Foundation's Cultural Leader in 2008, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore) in 2005.  For ten years, in tandem with his academic career, he worked as an analyst for The Economist's Intelligence Unit.

Director, Institute of Security and International Studies Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
Seminars

The Politics of Polarization: Taiwan in Comparative Perspective

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Over the past year and more, Taiwan’s political elite has been deadlocked over the question of deepening economic relations with the People’s Republic of China. This controversial issue has led to a standoff between the executive and legislative branches, sparked a frenzy of social activism and a student occupation of the legislature, and contributed to President Ma Ying-jeou’s deep unpopularity.

On October 17-18, the Taiwan Democracy Project at CDDRL, with the generous support of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office, will host its annual conference at Stanford University to examine the politics of polarization in Taiwan.

This conference will bring together specialists from Taiwan, the U.S., and elsewhere in Asia to examine the sources and implications of this political polarization in comparative perspective. It will include a special case study of the Trade in Services Agreement with China that triggered this past year’s protests, as well as a more general overview of the politics of trade liberalization in Taiwan, prospects for Taiwan’s integration into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other regional trade agreements, and a consideration of the implications for Taiwan’s long-term democratic future.

Conference speakers will include: Chung-shu Wu, the president of the Chung-hwa Institute of Economic Research (CIER) in Taipei; Steve Chan of the University of Colorado; Roselyn Hsueh of Temple University; Yun-han Chu, the president of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation; and Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Panels will examine the following questions:

1. What are the sources and implications of political polarization in Taiwan, and how have these changed in recent years?

2. How does Taiwan’s recent experience compare to political polarization in other countries in Asia (e.g. South Korea, Thailand) and elsewhere (the US)?

3. To what extent does the latest political deadlock in Taiwan reflect concern over the specific issue of trade with the People’s Republic of China, versus a deeper, systemic set of problems with Taiwan’s democracy?

4. How are globalization and trade liberalization reshaping Taiwan’s domestic political economy, and what are the prospects for forging a stronger pro-trade coalition in Taiwan that transcends the current partisan divide?

The conference will take place October 17-18 in the Bechtel Conference Room in Encina Hall at Stanford University. It is free and open to the public. 

 

Conference Resources

 

Agenda

Speaker Bios

Presentations

Conference Report

Conference Flyer

 

Conference Papers

 

How Cross-Strait Trade and Investment Is Affecting Income and Wealth Inequality in Taiwan by Chien-Fu Lin, National Taiwan University

 

Generational Differences in Attitudes towards Cross-Straits Trade by Ping-Yin Kuan, Department of Sociology & International Program in Asia-Pacific Studies, National Chengchi University

 

Change and the Unchanged of Polarized Politics in Taiwan by Min-Hua Huang, National Taiwan University; Center for East Asia Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution

 

Social Media, Social Movements and the Challenge of Democratic Governability by Boyu Chen, National Sun Yat-sen University, Institute of Political Science 

 

Coping with the Challenge of Democratic Governance under Ma Ying-jeou by Yun-han Chu, National Taiwan University

 

Taiwan’s Bid for TPP Membership and the Potential Impact on Taiwan-U.S. Relations by Kwei-Bo Huang, National Chengchi University, Department of Diplomacy

 

In the Wake of the Sunflower Movement: Exploring the Political Consequences of Cross-Strait Integration by Pei-shan Lee, National Chung Cheng University, Political Science Department 

 

The Roots of Thailand’s Political Polarization in Comparative Perspective by Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Chulalongkorn University; The Institute of Security and International Studies

 

The Role of the United States in Cross-Strait Economic Integration by Chen-Dong Tso, National Taiwan University

 

The China Factor and the Generational Shift over National Identity by Mark Weatherall, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy

 

Taiwan’s Strategy for Regional Economic Integration by Chung-Shu Wu, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research

 

Polarized Electorates in South Korea and Taiwan: The Role of Political Trust under Conservative Governments by Hyunji Lee, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia

 

Polarization in Taiwan Politics by Steve Chan, University of Colorado, Boulder

 

Agenda
Conference Biographies
Taiwan Polarization Conference Flyer
Politics of Polarization in Taiwan: Conference Report
Conferences

The Security Conundrum Series - Inside the NSA: An Evening with General Michael Hayden

In an age of terrorism, where should a democratic society draw the line on government surveillance? Edward Snowden’s explosive disclosures about the National Security Agency’s intelligence-collection operations have ignited an intense debate about the appropriate balance between security and liberty in America. In a special series this year, nationally prominent experts will explore the critical issues raised by the NSA’s activities, including their impact on our security, privacy, and civil liberties. This timely series will address one of the most challenging questions the nation faces today as it tries to strike the right balance between safety and liberty.

The Security Conundrum will look behind and beyond the headlines, examining the history and implementation of the NSA operations, the legal questions generated by them, the media’s role in revealing them, and the responsibility of Congress to oversee them. It will also address the NSA’s uneasy and evolving relationship with Silicon Valley. Each session in the series is designed to explore these issues from a different vantage point. The guest speakers, in conversation with Stanford scholars, will probe the problems, explain the political, legal, and technological contours of the NSA actions, and outline ways to preserve the nation’s security without sacrificing our freedoms. 

Inside the NSA: An Evening with General Michael Hayden 

General Michael Hayden was director of the National Security Agency on September 11, 2001. After the attacks, at the request of the White House, he intensified and expanded NSA wiretapping operations of various communications between Americans and terrorist suspects abroad in hopes of detecting and preventing another terrorist attack. These initial efforts were executed without a court order and after being revealed by The New York Times, were subsequently placed under judicial review. Over time, the NSA’s efforts grew into the multidimensional programs exposed by Edward Snowden, including the collection and storage of phone and email metadata covering billions of calls and messages between American citizens. 

In conversation with Amy Zegart, General Hayden will provide an insider’s account about the origins and development of the NSA programs. He will also discuss the directives and mechanisms to control them, and the disagreements within the Bush administration about the extent of the wiretapping. He will offer his views on the justification, legal status, scale, and effectiveness of the NSA monitoring.

Michael V. Hayden
Former Director of the CIA and the NSA
Michael V. Hayden served as Director of the CIA (2006–2009), First Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (2005–2006), and Director of the National Security Agency (1999–2005). He is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and is now a principal of The Chertoff Group.

Amy Zegart
Davies Family Senior Fellow and Associate Director, Hoover Institution; Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science; Co-Director, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation
Amy Zegart’s publications include Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 and Eyes on Spies: Congress and the United States Intelligence Community. She has served on the National Research Council’s panel on improving intelligence analysis.

The Security Conundrum is co-sponsored by Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Hoover Institution, Stanford Continuing Studies, Stanford in Government, and the Stanford Law School.

CEMEX Auditorium

Knight Management Center

641 Knight Way, Stanford University

General Michael Hayden Former Director of the CIA and the NSA Speaker CIA, NSA

Amy Zegart

CISAC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, E216
Stanford, CA 94305-6165

(650) 725-9754 (650) 723-0089
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
amyzegart-9.jpg PhD

Dr. Amy Zegart is the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. The author of five books, she specializes in U.S. intelligence, emerging technologies, and national security. At Hoover, she leads the Technology Policy Accelerator and the Oster National Security Affairs Fellows Program. She also is an associate director and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI; a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute; and professor of political science by courtesy, teaching 100 students each year about how emerging technologies are transforming espionage.

Her award-winning research includes the leading academic study of intelligence failures before 9/11: Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 (Princeton, 2007) and the bestseller Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence (Princeton, 2022), which was nominated by Princeton University Press for the Pulitzer Prize. She also coauthored Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity, with Condoleezza Rice (Twelve, 2018). Her op-eds and essays have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Politico, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Zegart has advised senior officials about intelligence and foreign policy for more than two decades. She served on the National Security Council staff and as a presidential campaign foreign policy advisor and has testified before numerous congressional committees. Before her academic career, she spent several years as a McKinsey & Company consultant.

Zegart received an AB in East Asian studies from Harvard and an MA and a PhD in political science from Stanford. She serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, and the American Funds/Capital Group.

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CDDRL welcomes incoming fellows

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Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is pleased to introduce the incoming 2014-15 class of pre and post-doctoral fellows. Selected from over 100 applicants, these six scholars will spend the academic year in residence at CDDRL to advance their research, work closely with faculty and connect to an innovative and multidisciplinary learning community.
 
Hailing from Harvard, U.C. Berkeley, Yale and Stanford the fellows bring diverse backgrounds and expertise to enrich the ranks at CDDRL - researching topics such as the economics of crime in Mexico and authoritarianism in Africa and the Middle East. Many of them will be actively working with CDDRL’s core research programs on a range of research initiatives that intersect with their own work. 
 
Since its launch in 2004, the fellowship program has welcomed over fifty pre and post-doctoral fellows from leading universities who are selected for their policy-relevant research that contributes to new knowledge in the field of democratic development.
 
You can read more about the fellows, their research and some fun facts below. 

Brett Carter

Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia

Academic Institution: Harvard University

Discipline and date of graduation: Ph.D. in Government, Summer 2014

Research Interests: Politics and economics in non-democracies, political economy of development, political violence, food security

Manuscript working title: Political Survival and the Modern Prince

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/post-doctoral program? The opportunity to be surrounded by other scholars with similar substantive interests but diverse geographic expertise is extremely exciting to me. I think it's precisely what I need at the moment.

What do you hope to accomplish during your year-long residency at the Center? I will spend most of the year preparing the book manuscript for submission. The dissertation asked how modern African autocrats survive nominally democratic institutions. To focus on the elites who comprise the regime -- as well as their political parties and the elections in which they compete -- the dissertation focused exclusively on the Republic of Congo, ruled by President Denis Sassou Nguesso for all but five years since 1979. I expect to spend much of the year ascertaining to what extent the arguments are generalizable to other parts of autocratic Africa and beyond.

Please state a fun fact about yourself! I really enjoy cooking. A lot. I've cooked through most of The French Laundry Cookbook and am now cooking through the Eleven Madison Park Cookbook. Honestly, I spend way too much time cooking. It's sort of absurd.

 

Julia Choucair-Vizoso

Hometown: Beirut, Lebanon

Academic Institution: Yale University

Discipline and expected date of graduation: Ph.D. in Political Science, expected May 2015

Research Interests: Authoritarianism; Elite Networks; Coalitional Politics; Social Exclusion; Middle East Politics

Dissertation Topic/Title: The Ties that Bind: Making and Breaking Authoritarian Ruling Coalitions

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/post-doctoral program? My research fits well with CDDRL’s substantive focus on democratization. Opening the black box of authoritarian coalitional formation and evolution is essential for understanding how ruling coalitions may come apart. I am also eager to collaborate with scholars in The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy, especially at a time when the Arab uprisings and coalitional breakdowns have unfortunately moved towards reconfigured authoritarian arrangements.

What do you hope to accomplish during your year-long residency at the Center? As a fellow at CDDRL, I plan to complete my dissertation and begin revising it for publication. I also plan to produce an article on the methodological and ethical challenges of conducting archival research and elite interviews in authoritarian settings.

Please state a fun fact about yourself! I’m a catless cat lady.

 

Melissa Lee

Hometown: Thousand Oaks, CA

Academic Institution: Stanford University

Discipline and expected date of graduation: Ph.D. in Political Science, expected June 2015

Research Interests: statebuilding, state weakness, international security, conflict, political development

Dissertation Topic/Title: The International Sources of Sovereignty and State Weakness

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/post-doctoral program? My research is broadly focused on the understanding the causes of incomplete governance and political underdevelopment. These are among the core themes in CDDRL's research programs, and CDDRL brings together both rigorous scholarship and a sensitive to policy-relevant research in these thematic areas. For that reason, I am excited about joining CDDRL's community of researchers, particularly those engaged in scholarship in the Governance Project and in the Program on Poverty and Governance. I look forward to productive conversations around the Center, and to helpful guidance and advice.

What do you hope to accomplish during your year-long residency at the Center? During my residency at CDDRL, I plan to complete my dissertation writing. I am also eager to begin a new project with another CDDRL pre-doctoral fellow in which we examine the relationship between statebuilding and democracy in developing countries.

Please state a fun fact about yourself! I make an excellent cheesecake!

 

Ken Opalo

Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya

Academic Institution: Stanford University 

Discipline and expected date of graduation: PhD in Political Science, expected June 2015

Research Interests: Institutions, Legislative Studies, Political Economy of Development, Elections and Governance, Natural Resource Management and Regional Cooperation

Dissertation Topic/Title: Institutions and Political Change: The Case of African Legislatures

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/post-doctoral program? I was attracted to CDDRL because of the centers strong emphasis on the need to link academic research with policy. I am interested in the ways in which institutional change impact development outcomes through the evolution of better, accountable governance and public policies. My research on legislatures includes analyses of how levels legislative institutionalization impact public finance management in African states.

What do you hope to accomplish during your year-long residency at the Center? I hope to finish writing my dissertation, to publish at least two chapters of the dissertation as stand alone papers, and to continue contributing to the policy world through my writing and consultancies.

Please state a fun fact about yourself! I run half marathons. Because I am Kenyan.

 

Gustavo Robles

Hometown: Guadalajara, Mexico

Academic Institution: Stanford University

Discipline and expected date of graduation: PhD in Political Science, expected 2015 

Research Interests: Economics of Crime and Violence, Legislative Studies, Political Economy of Development.

Dissertation Topic/Title: Three Essays on the Political Economy Drug-Related Violence in Mexico

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/post-doctoral program? CDDRL is a great place for students doing comparative work since it has a unique and vibrant community of faculty, visiting scholars, and policy makers from all over the world, including an important number of specialists in Latin American politics.

Moreover, the Center’s research agenda substantially aligns with my work on the relationship between democracy, partisanship, and governments’ efforts to contain and reduce crime and violence.

Finally, the work of the Program on Poverty and Governance at CDDRL on criminal violence and citizen security throughout Latin America has significantly shaped my PhD dissertation and research agenda.

What do you hope to accomplish during your year-long residency at the Center? I would like to complete the part of my dissertation that explores the relationship between Mexico’s democratization, criminal violence, and the government’s enforcement of the rule of law. In addition, the pre-doctoral fellowship will facilitate the completion of different ongoing research projects I am involved with at the Center. 

Please state a fun fact about yourself! I’m a good salsa dancer, jigsaw puzzle enthusiast, and amateur beach volleyball player.

 

Suzanne E. Scoggins

Hometown: Bremen, GA

Academic Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Discipline and expected date of graduation: Ph.D. in Political Science, expected May 2015

Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Policing, Governance, Rule of Law, and Chinese Politics 

Dissertation Topic/Title: Policing China: Struggles of Law, Order, and Organization for Ground-Level Officers

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/post-doctoral program? CDDRL's mission to understand how the rule of law and government institutions operate speaks directly to my work on the police bureaucracy. The Center's multidisciplinary approach brings together.scholars and intellectuals, making it an excellent forum for grappling with issues of institutional reform and local state security. As one of the newest additions to CDDRL, I look forward to engaging this community as I continue to investigate the weaknesses and strengths of the institutional apparatus China employs to carry out state priorities of reform and control.  

What do you hope to accomplish during your year-long residency at the Center? While at CDDRL I will finish my dissertation and prepare two chapters for publication. I also plan to lay the groundwork for my next project on the rapidly evolving relationship between police and media.  

Please state a fun fact about yourself! I'm a terrible gardener.

 

 

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Digital Destitution: A Mechanism of and for Inequality

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ABSTRACT
The result of not preparing people and places to manipulate the productive function of network technology is ‘digital destitution’. As the ability to access the Internet becomes more crucial in daily life, those Americans who are not prepared to function with this technology are excluded and do find themselves in a state of disconnection from the vital economic, social, political, cultural and institutional processes that depend on broadband technology. In this presentation, Dr. Blanca Gordo will outline and ground her theoretical conceptual framework for understanding the impact of being offline.

SPEAKER BIO
Blanca Gordo, Ph.D., is a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California at Berkeley where she is writing her book, Digital Destitution in the Digital Age. Most recently, she was the Academic Coordinator for the Center for Latino Policy Research at the University of California at Berkeley, where she directed public policy initiatives, program development, and the Technology and Development Research Group. Dr. Gordo holds a doctorate in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in regional-local economic development, urban poverty, local technology development processes, organizational analysis and development, public policy, ethnic populations (African Americans and Latinos), demographics, and social inequality structures

Blanca Gordo International Computer Science Institute, UC Berkeley
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series

Managing Collective Intelligence in Open Journalism: Power, Knowledge and Value

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ABSTRACT

Collective intelligence is channeled to journalism by crowdsourcing and co-creation. While the crowd contributes to the journalistic process with its knowledge, the crowd also challenges journalistic norms and ideals. In her talk, Dr. Aitamurto shows how collective intelligence impacts knowledge search in journalism, alters power structures in society, and functions as a basis for value creation.

SPEAKER BIO

Dr. Tanja Aitamurto is a Brown Fellow and the Deputy Director at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at the School of Engineering at Stanford, as well as a Liberation Technology alumna. Her research focuses on the applications of collective intelligence in journalism, governance, and new product design in media innovations. She is the author of the book "Crowdsourcing for Democracy: New Era in Policy-Making", and she has published in New Media & Society, Digital Journalism and Design Issues.

Tanja Aitamurto

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Visiting Researcher
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Tanja Aitamurto was a visiting researcher at the Program on Liberation Technology at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. In her PhD project she examined how collective intelligence, whether harvested by crowdsourcing, co-creation or open innovation, impacts incumbent processes in journalism, public policy making and design process. Her work has been published in several academic publications, such as the New Media and Society. Related to her studies, she advises the Government and the Parliament of Finland about Open Government principles, for example about how open data and crowdsourcing can serve democratic processes. Aitamurto now works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Stanford.

Aitamurto has previously studied at the Center for Design Research and at the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford University. She is a PhD Student at the Center for Journalism, Media and Communication Research at Tampere University in Finland, and she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy, and a Master of Arts in Humanities. Prior to returning to academia, she made a career in journalism in Finland specializing in foreign affairs, reporting in countries such as Afghanistan, Angola and Uganda. She has also taught journalism at the University of Zambia, in Lusaka, and worked at the Namibia Press Agency, Windhoek.

She also actively participates in the developments she is studying; she crowdfunded a reporting and research trip to Egypt in 2011 to investigate crowdsourcing in public deliberation. She also practices social entrepreneurship in the Virtual SafeBox (http://designinglibtech.tumblr.com/), a project, which sprang from Designing Liberation Technologies class at Stanford. Tanja blogs on the Huffington Post and writes about her research at PBS MediaShift. More about Tanja’s work at www.tanjaaitamurto.com and on Twitter @tanjaaita.

 

 

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Liberation Technology Seminar Series

A tight race for the Scottish independence vote

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Scottish voters go to the polls this Thursday to determine whether to remain part of the United Kingdom, or to become an independent Scotland.  The latest polls show a neck and neck race, a development that would not have been believable just months ago when the "No" campaign held a dominant lead.

Christophe Crombez, Belgian-American economist and consulting professor at Stanford's Europe Center in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Global Studies Division, discussed the pros and cons of Scottish independence on KQED Radio's "Forum with Michael Krasney" (Mon, Sep 15, 2014).  Joining him were Adam Ramsay, a senior campaigner for "Yes Scotland", co-editor of Open Democracy and author of 42 Reasons to Support Scottish Independence, and Geoff Dyer, Financial Times' US diplomatic correspondent.

Visit KQED Radio's Forum web article "Will Scotland Vote for Independence?" to download a recording of this interview.

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Yes and No voters wait for Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond to do a walkabout in Perth, central Scotland, September 12, 2014.
Yes and No voters wait for Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond to do a walkabout in Perth, central Scotland, September 12, 2014. The referendum on Scottish independence will take place on September 18, when Scotland will vote whether or not to end the 307-year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom.
Dylan Martinez / Reuters
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