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.

Good Governance in South Korea: Mobilizing Citizens through Engaged Communication

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The Honorable Park Won Soon is the 35th mayor of Seoul, South Korea. He was initially elected in Oct. 2011, and recently reelected for another four-year term in June 2014. Park was elected as an indepedent candidate, with the support of the Democratic Party and Democractic Labor Party.

In his keynote speech, Mayor Park will share his philosophy on civic participation and local governance, reflecting on his career in- and outside government. He will explore communication strategies that local government can employ to better engage citizens and motivate collective action, using best practices from Seoul to illustrate his point.

Before assuming office, Park was a human rights lawyer and passionate activist who founded several NGOs. In his early university years at Seoul National University, Park was arrested and expelled for participating in a student rally against the military dictatorship of President Park Chung Hee, and was subsequently imprisoned for four months.

Park passed the state bar exam in 1980, and worked as a public prosecutor in the Daegu District Court in Gyeongsang Province (1982–3), afterward launching a private law practice in Seoul. In 2006, Park founded the Hope Institute, a think tank that aims to apply policy alternatives based on ideas generated by Korea’s citizens.

He also founded the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in 1994, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting justice and human rights in Korean society through civic participation.

In 2000, Park founded the Beautiful Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote a culture of philanthropy and a just society in Korea, and in 2002, the Beautiful Store, a secondhand store that raises funds for the Foundation’s initiatives.

Park holds a diploma in international law from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in history from Dankook University. In 1993, he was a visiting research fellow in the Human Rights Program at the School of Law at Harvard University and from 2005-6 he was a distinguished practitioner at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University.

This event is part of the Asia-Pacific Leaders Forum.

The video of this presentation is located on the Shorenstein APARC YouTube channel.

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McCaw Hall

Stanford Alumni Association
Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center
326 Galvez Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6105
Parking, Map & Directions.

 

Park Won Soon Mayor of Seoul
Lectures
Asia-Pacific Leaders Forum

FSI director confirmed for state's highest court

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Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, won unanimous confirmation Thursday to the California Supreme Court during an hour-long hearing before the state Commission on Judicial Appointments. Cuéllar, known as “Tino” among colleagues, is the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He has led FSI for the past year.

Prior to the hearing, Cuéllar received the highest rating possible from a state bar commission charged with evaluating him.

“Our system rightly calls for judges to leave behind all policy preferences and all partisan goals,”Cuéllar said during the hearing. “To my mind, judges must be humble yet decisive, committed to integrity, and impartial and fair in every single case. If I am fortunate enough to serve on this court, each day will find me working to honor these ideals and earn the public’s trust.”

Jeff Bleich and Danielle Gray, two lawyers who worked with Cuéllar in the Obama administration, along with former Stanford Law School dean Larry Kramer, spoke on behalf of Cuéllar at the hearing praising his scholarship and character and noting the breadth and depth of his experience. Kramer quipped, “I’ve often joked that there are two or three of him out there because there’s no other way to explain the amount of things he gets done.”

“Professor Cuéllar’s experience, skill, wisdom and compassion will make him a distinguished member of the California Supreme Court, “ said M. Elizabeth Magill, Dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, who attended the hearing. “We have been honored to call him a member of our faculty and are extremely proud that he will be serving the people of California on the bench.”

If approved by voters on the November ballot for a 12-year term, Cuéllar, a Democrat, will assume office in January and will be the first Latino immigrant and the only Latino on the court. He would replace conservative Justice Marvin R. Baxter and, along with another judge yet to be appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, could continue to give the governor an opportunity to shape the court.

Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford Law School, Cuéllar served on the Obama-Biden transition team on immigration policy and as a special assistant to President Obama on justice and regulatory matters for the White House Domestic Policy Council. In that role, he worked on a wide range of issues that included funding for drug treatment, responding to crises such as the BP oil crisis, administrative efforts to close the gender gap and the U.S. Defense Department’s repeal of its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Cuéllar also worked in the Clinton administration as Senior Advisor to the Treasury Department Under Secretary for Enforcement, providing counsel on issues including money laundering and firearms policies, and clerked for 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Mary Schroeder.

Terry Nagel is the associate director of media relations at Stanford Law School.

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Tino confirmation
FSI Director Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar was confirmed to the state Supreme Court during a hearing held Aug. 28.
Commission on Judicial Appointments
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The Cold War, Human Rights and Self-Determination

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About the Topic: During the Cold War countless peoples and movements in both the decolonizing world and the advanced industrial states mobilized under the banner of self-determination, and sought to institutionalize its status as a human right in international law. This talk, focusing on the end of European empire in the 1970s will explore why self-determination came to have such expansive and potentially disruptive meaning in the post-WWII era, serving as a short-hand for a wide range of claims to sovereignty.
 
About the Speaker: Brad Simpson is an assistant professor of history and international studies at Princeton University. His research and teaching interests are twentieth-century U.S. foreign relations and international history. His first book, Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968 (Stanford 2008) explores the intersection of anti-Communism and development thinking in shaping U.S. Indonesian relations. 
 
He is currently researching a global history of self-determination, exploring its political, cultural and legal descent through post 1945 US foreign relations and international politics. Simpson is also a founder and director of a project at the non-profit National Security Archive to declassify U.S. government documents concerning Indonesia and East Timor during the reign of General Suharto (1966-1998). He has recently published in International History Review, Cold War History, Reviews in American History, Diplomatic History, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Critical Asian Studies, and Peace and Change.

Encina Hall Basement, Room E008

Brad Simpson Assistant Professor of History and International Studies Speaker Princeton University
Seminars

*NEW DATE* Does Judicial Independence Matter for Judicial Influence?

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Please note that this is a new date for this event.  It has been rescheduled from March 12th to May 7th, 2015.

 

Under what conditions is judicial independence from national governments necessary for judicial influence over national government action?  Some scholar argue that informal and sub constitutional factors matter more than "parchment protections", while others believe judicial independence is critical for judicial influence. Building off of a basic separation of powers argument, we demonstrate that formal institutional protections designed to ensure judicial independence should be critical only when elected officials are sufficiently unified, where "sufficiently unified" depends upon the design of the political system. That is, they are more than "parchment barriers" and less than necessary. To test the argument, we introduce a new cross-national database on high court constitutional review (CompLaw). The Complaw database is designed to systematically and consistently code data on high court constitutional decisions at a very fine-grained level across a large variety of political systems.

This talk is part of The Europe Center's "European Governance Seminar Series."

Professor Clifford Carrubba, Political Science, Emory University

 

Clifford J. Carrubba, B.A. (1991), Duke University; Ph.D (1998), Stanford University. Previous appointment at SUNY Stony Brook (Assistant Professor). Specialization: comparative legislative and judicial politics, comparative institutions, European politics, game theory. Current research projects include studies of legislative behavior and roll call vote analysis, the design and change of judicial institutions (with application to the European Court of Justice), and statistical tests of game theoretic models.

Carrubba is currently serving as the Director of The Institute for Quantitative Theory and Methods, developed and launched by Dr. Carrubba in December of 2011.

Does Judicial Independence Matter for Judicial Influence?
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Cliff Carrubba Professor of Political Science & Law by Courtesy Speaker Emory University
Seminars
European Governance

In Draghi We Trust: The Euro Crisis, Social Unrest and the European Central Bank

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The 2008 global financial crisis came with fears - and, for some, hopes of a new wave of public mobilisation in industrialised countries. Large protests were particularly expected in the epicentre of the crisis, the European Union. Yet, the force with which social groups garnered their calls for strikes ebbed quickly away. Gerald Schneider provides new evidence for why this was the case. He claims that strikes, and particularly political strikes, are 'bad weather' phenomena and crises exacerbate them. In monetary unions, where currency adjustments are difficult, fiscal changes are not supported by easing monetary measures and should unchain social unrest unless supranational actors get involved. Schneider argues that the political actions of the European Central Bank (ECB) have countered the potential for strikes in the Eurozone. He provides evidence for his theory with yearly panel data and a new original data  set of monthly strikes between 2001 and 2013. His analyses support the thesis that the EU institution was successful at attenuating social indignation over the Eurocrisis and its political fallout.

This paper is based on co-authored work with Dr. Federica Genovese (Essex) and Pia Wassmann (Hannover).

Professor Gerald Schneider, University of Konstanz

Gerald Schneider is Professor of International Politics and Executive Editor of “European Union Politics”. His main areas of research are European Union decision making, the causes and consequences of armed violence, the international political economy of financial markets, bargaining and conflict management.

Schneider defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich in 1991, worked as post-doc at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for two years and was an assistant professor (1992 – 1995) at the Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales in Geneva. Before joining the faculty at Konstanz in 1997, he was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Stuttgart (1996-1997) and Program Director at the University of Berne (1994 – 1997). Gerald Schneider has also been visiting scholar at Università Bocconi (Visiting Research Professor), Charles University Prague, Harvard University, University of Kobe, Sciences Po Paris (Grosser Chair) and Università Siena. He has published around 150 articles in various journals and volumes. Schneider is President of the European Political Science Association (2013-2015) and was also in 2003-2004 Vice President of the International Studies Association, and served as Program Chair for the 50th annual convention in New York City in 2009. Schneider has acted as a consultant and referee for various organizations, including the World Bank and the U.S. National Science Foundation. He has served for various selection committees of the the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 2007 and was a member of the scientific board of the Swiss Network of International Studies (2008-2013). Besides his native German, Schneider speaks English, French and survives in Italian and Danish.

The Eurotower Strikes Back: Crises, Adjustments and Europe's Austerity Protests
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CISAC Central Conference Room
Encina Hall, 2nd floor
 

Gerald Schneider Professor of International Politics Speaker Universität Konstanz, Germany
Seminars
European Governance Seminar Series
Europe and the Global Economy Seminar Series

Delegation to the Device: What happens when we deploy quantitative models for complex matters of concern?

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Abstract: In 2011 I joined a team of global security analysts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to develop a systematic methodology for “information-driven” safeguards for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This methodology would link the IAEA’s nuclear inspection schedules, within a given state, to a heterogenous body of information about the state. As the lone physicist in the group, I was quickly fashioned as the “quantitative guy”, who would produce quantitative frameworks to make information-driven safeguards “more objective”, and “less political”. But as my quantitative contributions earned the respect of my peers, I became leery of the role they might play in the political shift I saw afoot. If safeguards was to be information-driven, then whose information would “drive” the IAEA? 
 
In this presentation, I tell the story of my experience as the “quant guy” at LLNL in order to explore a broader question: when is it useful to deploy quantitative methods of highly complex phenomena in matters of social consequence? I borrow from a distinction commonly made in the science studies literature - between disciplinary and mechanical objectivity - to argue that quantitative models serve us best when they are used not to “remove bias” or “increase rigor”, but to aid subjective judgement and facilitate communication.
 
 
About the Speaker: Chris Lawrence received his PhD in nuclear science at University of Michigan in 2014, and has published in the fields of nuclear detection and solid-state physics. His dissertation introduced novel neutron-spectroscopy techniques for the verification of warhead dismantlement. In 2011 he worked on nuclear safeguards policy issues in the Global Security Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is currently a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at CISAC, where he studies the creation and deployment of knowledge about nuclear programs and treaty compliance.

Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Christopher Lawrence Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow Speaker CISAC
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Francis Fukuyama on America in decay

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Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow Francis Fukuyama shares a glimpse of his forthcoming volume of The Origins of Political Order in a recent journal article for Foreign Affairs. Referencing various historical accounts of public administration pitfalls and triumphs, Fukuyama dissects the intricate web of political gridlock confronting American government today. 

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President Obama addresses Congress on September 9, 2009.
Lawrence Jackson; www.whitehouse.gov
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War, Revolution and Freedom: the Baltic Countries in the 20th Century (Conference Day 3)

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Conference Agenda for Day 3, October 10, 2014:

 

9:00 – 10:15 AM Chair: Katherine Jolluck, Stanford University

  • Aigi Rahi-Tamm, Tartu University. Doubly Marginalized People: the Hidden Stories of Breaking Trust between People in Estonian Society (1940–1960)
  • Daina Bleiere, Rīga Stradiņš University. Women in the Soviet Latvian Nomenclature (1940–1987)

10:30 AM – 12:15 PM Chair: Darius Staliunas, Lithuanian Institute of History

  • Saulius Grybkauskas, Lithuanian Institute of History. The Second Secretaries of Communist Parties in the Soviet Baltic Republics during 1944–1990
  • David Beecher, University of California, Berkeley. A Tale of Two Scholars:  Paul Ariste and Yuri Lotman
  • Gail Lapidus, Stanford University. The Baltic National Movements and the End of the USSR

12:15 – 2:00 PM Break

2:00 – 3:15 PM Chair: Paul Roderick Gregory, Hoover Institution

  • Elga Zalīte, Green Library. The Rev. Richards Zariņš Collection in Stanford University Libraries as a Source for the Study of the Post-World War II Latvian Emigration in the United States
  • David Jacobs, Hoover Institution Archives. Stateless Representatives: Baltic Diplomats during the Cold War

3:30 – 4:15 PM Chair: Saulius Sužiedėlis, Millersville University, Pennsylvania

  • Maciej Siekierski, Hoover Institution Archives. Baltic Collections and Scholarship at the Hoover Institution
  • Liisi Esse, Green Library. The Baltic Studies Program of Stanford University Libraries

 

6:00 – 8:00 PM, Cubberley Auditorium, Education Building, 485 Lasuen Mall

Latvian film director Pēteris Krilovs will present his documentary Obliging Collaborators (2014)

 

Conference organizers:  Professors Lazar Fleishman (Slavic Department) and Amir Weiner (History Department)

Sponsored by: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Office of the Provost, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford Global Studies Division, The Europe Center, Stanford University Libraries, Division of Literatures, Cultures, & Languages, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Stanford Humanities Center.

 

Stauffer Auditorium, Hoover Institution (9:00am - 4:15pm)
Cubberley Auditorium (for film screening, 6:00pm - 8:00pm)
 

Conferences

War, Revolution and Freedom: the Baltic Countries in the 20th Century (Conference Day 2)

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Conference Agenda for Day 2, October 9, 2014:


9:00-10:45 AM Chair: Magnus Ilmjärv, Тallinn University

  • Ineta Lipša, Institute of History of Latvia. Interwar History of Latvia: the Gender Aspects
  • Aivars Stranga, University of Latvia. Kārlis Ulmanis' Regime: Politics, Economics, Culture
  • Andres Kasekamp, Tartu University. The Estonian Radical Right in the 1930s: The Collapse of Democracy and the Rise of Authoritarianism. 

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM Chair: David Holloway, Stanford University

  • Arturas Svarauskas, Lithuanian Institute of History. Regime, Society, and Political Tensions in Lithuania, 1938–1940.
  • Magnus Ilmjärv, Тallinn University. Munich Pact and the Baltic States, 1938 – The Fateful Year for the Baltic States.

12:15 – 2:00 PM Break

2:00 – 3:15 PM Chair: Norman Naimark, Stanford University

  • Saulius Sužiedėlis, Millersville University, Pennsylvania. The Nazi Occupation and the Holocaust in Reichskommissariat Ostland: Conflicting Narratives and Memories
  • Uldis Neiburgs, Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Latvia, Nazi German Occupation, and the Western Allies, 1941–1945

3:30 – 4:45 PM Chair: Gabriella Safran, Stanford

  • Ene Kõresaar, Tartu University. World War II in Estonian Memory and Commemoration
  • Kristina Burinskaitė, The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. The KGB Search of War Criminals in the West and the Attempts to Discredit Lithuanian Emigration

 

Conference organizers:  Professors Lazar Fleishman (Slavic Department) and Amir Weiner (History Department)

Sponsored by: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Office of the Provost, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford Global Studies Division, The Europe Center, Stanford University Libraries, Division of Literatures, Cultures, & Languages, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Stanford Humanities Center.

 

 

Stauffer Auditorium, Hoover Institution

Conferences

Coalition against corruption

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About the Conference

CoCo 2014 was the inaugural edition of the Coalition against Corruption (CoCo) conference co-hosted by The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bangalore and Sunlight Foundation, Washington DC. 

CoCo brought together participants from over fifteen countries and across a wide spectrum comprising researchers and academics, elected representatives, government officials, practitioners, civil society organisations, technologists and citizens. 

Over three days, we engaged in conversations on a wide range of issues on the following corruption types: 

  • Corruption in public resource allocation
  • Political financing and lobbying
  • Corruption in public procurement
  • Retail corruption in public services for citizens

CoCo 2014 explored these corruption-types in an innovative format across the themes of rule of law, tools of transparency and accountability and the impact of grassroots pressure groups and digital platforms. 

Besides the four plenaries, CoCo allowed plenty of time for short presentations, for showcasing practitioner successes and for open group discussions. Part of the agenda was also an “Unconference” session for surfacing and discussing critical challenges that went beyond the four corruption-types in focus at CoCo. 

Conference Partners

 

Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (Janaagraha) is a Bangalore based not for profit organisation committed to transforming quality of life in India’s cities and towns. 

Janaagraha defines quality of life not just as quality of infrastructure and services, but also as quality of citizenship in a democracy. Along with its sister organisation Jana Urban Space Foundation, it runs multiple programs on transforming cities and citizenship. These programmes are based on a Theory of Change built around a City-Systems framework that Janaagraha has developed over many years of grassroots work with citizens, and reforms advocacy with government for scalable and sustainable change. 

The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan non-profit founded in 2006 that uses the power of the Internet to catalyse greater government openness and transparency. It does so by creating tools, open data, policy recommendations, journalism and grant opportunities to dramatically expand access to vital government information. Its vision is to use technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation.
 

Sunlight Foundation is a leading innovator in the transparency and accountability space, bringing greater government transparency by engaging individual citizens and communities - technologists, policy analysts, open government advocates and ordinary citizens to demand policies that ensure government accountability. 

Conference Video Playlist

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Bangalore, India

Conferences
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