The Center on Institutions and Governance

Ambassador John Bruton
Head of Delegation of the European Commission in the United States

Wednesday, February 13, 10:30 a.m.
IGS Library, 109 Moses Hall

Ambassador Bruton will speak about how a bi-directional partnership between the EU and California is evolving and what chances there are for future regulatory cooperation, learning, and emulation between them. California has been a regulatory trendsetter at the national and international levels. Recently the European Union has become a global regulatory leader, while California has become both a launching pad for American versions of European regulation and an innovator that influences Europe.

Don't miss two seminars by authors associated with the EU-California Regulatory Cooperation Project and the Center for Institutions and Governance:

What's the Beef? The Contested Governance of European Food Safety (Politics, Science and Environment)"

By Chris Ansell, Associate Professor of Political Science , UC Berkeley and
David Vogel, Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
January 25, 2008, 4:30 p.m.
Harris Seminar Room,
119 Moses Hall

A series of food-related crises -- most notably mad cow disease in Britain, farmer protests in France against American hormone-treated beef, and the European Union's banning of genetically modified food -- has turned the regulation of food safety in Europe into a crucible for issues of institutional trust, legitimacy, and effectiveness. What's the Beef? examines European food safety regulation at the national, European, and international levels as a case of "contested governance" -- a syndrome of policymaking and political dispute in which not only policy outcomes but also the fundamental legitimacy of existing institutional arrangements are challenged.

"Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power"

By Mark Schapiro, Editorial Director, Center for Investigative Journalism
November 28, 2007, 4 p.m.
Harris Seminar Room, 119 Moses Hall

Mark Schapiro's new book investigates how corporations intent on thwarting stricter environmental and health guidelines here in the U.S. are forced to meet new demands by the European Union to improve their products. The resulting global economic power shift places Brussels, not Washington, in the driver's seat.

"Racing the Republic:
Ethnicity and Inequality in France
in American and World Perspective"
September 7-8, 2007

Questions of ethnoracial division (linked to slavery, colonial rule, and/or immigration), citizenship, and politics loom large today not only in the United States but also in many other advanced nations.

None is perhaps more urgently concerned with these issues today than France. And none provides a more fruitful comparative case with the United States, since the two republics share a germane commitment to the democratic ideal and a common claim to embody civic universality.

To download the program, click here. To download abstracts of the papers, click here. To download the biographies of the participants, click here. To download some of the papers presented, click here.

Transatlantic Trends: Maintaining Common Action
and Cooperation Across the Atlantic

June 27, 2007, World Affairs Council

Ambassador John Bruton, Head of Delegation of the European Commission in the United States, spoke at 6 p.m. at the World Affairs Council Auditorium, 312 Sutter Street in San Francisco. Bruton spoke about the current state of the partnership between the United States, Canada and the European Union, a relationship based on shared common values and close cultural, economic, social and political ties. For more information download the event flyer (in PDF format).

Co-sponsored by the French American Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco and the Center on Institutions & Governance at UC Berkeley.

May 16, 2007, Lipman Room, Barrows Hall

2007 is the 300th year anniversary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish scientist known as the founder of taxonomy. Linnaeus was not only a noted biologist but an ecologist and environmentalist who was ahead of his time.

A symposium honoring Linnaeus featured a concert by the Collegium Cantorum Choir of the Cathedral of Uppsala, a screening of the documentary film Expedition Linnaeus commemorating the tercentenary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus and three panel discussions on the extinction of plant and animal species; development of alternative energy sources and green technology initiatives; and the political economy of transatlantic regulatory cooperation. To see the symposium's program, click here.

Thanks to all of our sponsors: UC Berkeley's Center on Institutions and Governance, The College of Natural Resources, Barbro Osher, Honorary Consul General of Sweden, SM Interhuman Communications, The Scandinavian Department, The Church of Sweden, Collegium Cantorum and The EPA of Sweden.

The UC Berkeley Positive Political Theory group hosted a two-day workshop on Endogenous Institutions and Political Conflict on the Berkeley campus. This workshop brings together a group of scholars who share related interests on institutions. Papers were presented on a wide variety of topics, including civil wars, authority, war and collective action, polarization, inefficient states and democracy. For the workshop schedule, please click here. Papers to be discussed are posted here.

Olivier Roy, research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research, spoke on "Western Muslims or Muslims in the West?" at UC Berkeley on January 25, 2007. Click here for a summary of Dr. Roy's talk.

See the Webcast of this Oct. 26 panel discussion, in which panelists made bold predictions about the upcoming election and talked about the importance of framing and the Netroots movement. Questions from the audience were addressed by
panelists in the second half.


George Lakoff	Joan Blades	Markos Moulitsas	Paul Pierson
Professor UC Berkeley Founder of Rockridge Institute	Co-founder Moveon.org	Daily Kos	Professor UC Berkeley

For several weeks in late 2005 France experienced nightly riots. Originally touched off after the accidental electrocution of two young men of North african descent fleeing police, the riots tapped into a deep resentment around racism and lack of opportunity for immigrants and their children within French society. French government's proposed changes in labor law introduced in March of this year, partially an attempt to alleviate high youth unemployment which are perceived to underlie the riots, again provoked massive unrest this time in the form of protest organized by opposition parties, student organizations and labor unions. The event was sponsored by the World Affairs Council and was held at the offices of the World Affairs Council (312 Sutter Street, Suite 200; San Francisco 94108). For the conference program, please click here.

Workshop on the Regulatory Powers of the European Union and Its Transatlantic Consequences

The goal of the workshop was to examine the impact of EU regulations on US firms and on US legislation. An emerging literature emphasizes the role of the European Union as a regulatory power. The fiscal powers of the European Union are rather small and are not expected to increase. They are probably more likely to decrease as can be seen from the 2005 budget crisis.

However, researchers are realizing more and more that the regulatory powers of the European Union are quite strong and have an influence not only on Member States but also outside Europe. These regulatory powers have grown very much due to the intense legislative activity of the last 15 years at the level of the European Union. This legislative activity has developed with the Single Market Program aiming at harmonizing a great deal of EU legislation in order to remove non tariff barriers within the European Union. This has given de facto important regulatory powers to the EU which influence not only markets inside Europe but also outside Europe . This became clear with the indictment of Microsoft by the European Commission following an unsuccessful anti-trust case against the software company in the US. The workshop also discussed the EU's regulatory powers under current discussion with the REACH regulation which aims at regulating chemical products, and the possibility of adapting the REACH regulation to California, which has generated interest among federal and state legislators in the US. The conference that was held on the UC Berkeley campus in the Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., was sponsored by CIG and the Institute of European Studies (Title VI Grant). For the conference program, please click here.

This interdisciplinary conference focused on the politics of the prison boom and its causal relationship with and contribution to resurging inequality. It also stimulated the participation of scholars who have not previously focused on the police, the courts, and corrections, in an effort to bring penal institutions "back" into core areas of sociology, including research on stratification and the labor market, race and ethnicity, public opinion and public policy, social welfare, and urban sociology. The conference provided advanced doctoral students and new assistant professors with a platform not only to present their own work but also exposed participants to research on the various interacting aspects of the criminal justice system being carried out in sociology, anthropology, political science, history, law, the humanities, and public policy. The conference was sponsored by the CIG, the Department of Sociology, the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, and the Princeton University Department of Sociology. The event was held on Friday, May 5, at the Center for the Study of Law and Society (2240 Piedmont Avenue), and on Saturday, May 6, in the Blumer Room (402 Barrows Hall). For the conference program, please click here. For abstracts and papers that were presented at the conference, please click here.

The UC Berkeley Positive Political Theory group organized a workshop on Endogenous Institutions and Political Conflict that will take place on the Berkeley campus. The goal of the workshop was to bring together a group of scholars who share related interests on institutions. The workshop took a broad view of institutions, such as peace settlements, political transitions, and power sharing arrangements. The unifying theme of the workshop was that institutions or key aspects of them are often an outcome of some underlying process. During the day and a half meeting, participants presented six papers and shared ideas about the general theme of institutional development in the shadow of war and the threat of violence. The workshop was held in the Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) at the Institute of Governmental Studies. For the workshop schedule, please click here. For workshop papers, please click here.

The aim of the conference was to bring together scholars who study various aspects of legislative behavior. The conference offered scholars the opportunity to present, compare and discuss their latest legislative behavior theory, methodology or empirical research based on datasets of roll call votes from legislative bodies throughout the world. The main goals of the conference included, but were not limited to: advancing the analysis of legislative behavior by examining new legislative roll call databases in a comparative perspective; encouraging the advancement of statistical and econometric estimation techniques relying on roll call votes using both longitudinal and cross country data; and spurring the development of theories of voting behavior and coalition formation. The workshop gathered experts on legislative behavior from a variety of methodological perspectives and covered a diversity of geographical regions. The conference was sponsored by CIG and the UC San Diego Department of Political Science. The conference was held at the Del Mar Inn, north of the UC San Diego campus. For a conference schedule, please click here. For conference papers, please click here.

Bringing together academics, policy experts, and funding organizations from the US and EU, this conference focused on the changing political and economic environment for agriculture in the two regions. Specific issues that were discussed include the changing nature of agri-environmental programs and the policy making process, the role and interaction of different stakeholders in deciding agri-environmental policies, and the function of international bodies such as the WTO in determining US-EU agricultural bargaining. The conference was sponsored by CIG, the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department, the Giannini Foundation, and the Institute of European Studies. For a detailed description of the conference, please click here. The conference was held in Grass Valley, California. For pictures of the conference, please click here. For presentations from the conference, please click here.

With the referendum on the EU Constitution taking place in different countries within the European Union, this panel examined the arguments in favor and against the EU Constitution. The conference was sponsored by CIG, the World Affairs Council, and the School of Journalism. For a detailed description of the conference, click here. The conference was held in the IGS Library (109 Moses) from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m..

Until now, most academic studies focusing on Islam fall into one of two categories: Area Studies (Middle East, Central Asia etc.) or "Islamology," that is, the study of Islamic religion and history. The resulting patchwork of microcosmic field studies on the one hand, and a purely culturalist and holistic approach of Islam on the other, does not take into account the effect of globalization on Islam. Contemporary radical Islam, for example, is transnational and increasingly rooted in the West itself; it is less a legacy of traditional Islam than a product of globalization. As we have seen with particular urgency since 9/11, when the academic community fails to deal with Islam on these terms, the field is relegated to journalists or security experts. The goal of the conference was to go beyond the boundaries of existing academic fields to understand the new phenomenon of transnational Islam and to address the following issues: the globalization of Islam; the relationship between Islam as a universal religion and the specific cultures of the Middle East; the feasibility of democratization of Muslim countries; and the relationship between Islam and democracy. The conference was sponsored by CIG and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The Center for Southeast Asia Studies, French Department, Graduate Theological Union, Institute of European Studies, Townsend Center, and International and Area Studies also supported the conference. For a detailed description of the conference, click here. The conference was held in the Lipman Room (8th Floor, Barrows Hall) from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.. For working papers from the conference, please click here. A webcast of the conference is now available here.

This one-day seminar on the political situation in Nepal brought together academics, journalists and political activists. They reflected different backgrounds and viewed the insurgency in conflicting terms. This was a controversial exchange which shed new light on the conflict and its origins, and on possible avenues to its solution. The conference was sponsored by CIG, the Department of Political Science, the Human Rights Center, and the Center for South Asia Studies. For a detailed description of the conference, click here. For working papers from the conference, please click here.

This conference will gather experts on legislative behavior from various angles and will cover different geographical regions. Special attention will be given to legislative behavior in the European Union in light of the newly drafted Constitution for the European Union. One of the main goals of the conference is to use the comparative perspective to to analyze legislative behavior in the European Parliament and the European Council and to compare fruitfully legislative behavior in the European Union with the experience of the US and other democracies. Methodological and econometric issues in the analysis of legislative behavior will also be discussed. The conference is sponsored by CIG and the Institute of European Studies. For a detailed description of the conference, click here. For working papers from the conference, please click here.