The workshop focuses on the interaction between the behavior of political elites (in particular, their career ambitions) and the institutional framework in federal and newly regionalized states. More specifically, the participants aim to link comparative federalism to elite studies in order to analyze the effects that (changing) institutional frameworks have on the behavior of politicians in federal and newly regionalized countries. The conference participants will address the following topics: (1) the effects of the macro-characteristics of the political system on the leeway and careers of political elites in federal and regionalized countries; (2) the implications of democratic development and federalism on political elites; as well as (3) the agency problem created by federalization and regionalization and the modes of establishing accountability of political elites in multi-level countries.

The design of the workshop provides for both theoretical papers and empirical case studies on elites and institutions in multi-level states.

The workshop is organized by the Research Committee RC02 “Political Elites” (International Political Science Association) and the Research Group on Federalism (German Political Science Association).

The organizers are grateful to the German Scientific Foundation (DFG) and the Center for International Cooperation (Free University of Berlin) for financial support.

December 3-4, 2015
Freie Universität Berlin
Garystraße 35, Henry-Ford-Bau, Konferenzraum III