Third ECPR-ODIHR Winter School on Political Parties and Democracy
When
Where
Organized by
The winter school event will bring together an international team of academics and practitioners to train and instruct a group of 20 MA/PhD researchers, practitioners and civil society activists in the field of political parties and democracy.
Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, the format of the school will be “online only”.
Organisers and sponsors
This event is organised under the auspices of the Standing Group on Central East European Politics and the support of the Standing Group on Political Parties of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).
It is sponsored by the European Consortium for Political Research, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw and the Centre for the Study of Parties and Democracy.
Aims
The main aims of the winter school include:
- providing instruction and discussion on a wider range of issues in the study of political parties, party systems, elections and democracy
- developing a multinational forum for both junior scholars and practitioners to critically discuss their research projects
- assisting PhD researchers to develop cutting edge dissertation projects, aiming for innovation in areas such as concept, measurement, analysis and theory
- preparing PhD researchers for the requirements and criteria of international academic publishing, and encouraging them to submit their work to academic journals
- helping practitioners understand the main academic findings regarding party politics and democracy promotion
- building on the most recent knowledge of political party development and democracy promotion presented by the Global Agenda for the Renewal of Representation
- stimulating international collaboration around parties, party systems, elections and democracy, and encouraging PhD researchers and practitioners to take part
Participants
The winter school is open for MA/PhD researchers, practitioners and civil society leaders in the field of political parties, elections, representative democracy and closely related areas (e.g. anti-corruption, gender equality, political participation).
Participants should be from and working on OSCE post-communist member states:
- Albania
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- North Macedonia
- Georgia
- Hungary
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Tajikistan
- Turkmenistan
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
The maximum number of participants is 20. Organizers will attempt to achieve both a gender, diversity, and a regional (i.e. Central and South-Eastern European as well as post-Soviet region) balance.
Application
Applications should be appropriately filled in (please do answer all the questions) and submitted to both Fernando.Casal.Bertoa@nottingham.ac.uk and k.grzybowska-walecka@uksw.edu.pl by Friday, 29 November 2020 (inclusively). They should be joined by a 500-word abstract (and up to 5 keywords) of your proposed paper. No other documents (e.g. CV, passport) needed at this stage.
A preliminary selection of shortlisted participants will be made by Tuesday, 4 December 2020, conditioned to the final submission of papers by Sunday, 3 January 2021. The papers should be a maximum of 8000 words.
The shortlisted participants may also be contacted for a Skype interview before final acceptance. Those participants failing to submit the papers in time will be prevented from participating in the school.
Important to bear in mind: applications by citizens from and/or working on other countries than those mentioned above, incomplete applications (e.g. missing questions, no abstract or keywords) or those submitted after the deadline as well as from those applications who have already obtained (i.e. defended) their PhD will not be considered.
Staff
The teaching staff consists of 11 leading scholars and practitioners in the field of political parties, elections and democracy from leading universities and international organizations.
Teaching format
The winter school comprises an intensive programme of lectures and seminars by leading scholars and practitioners in the field, and presentations with in-depth discussions of participants’ projects.
The working language (both for papers and presentations by participants) will be English only.
The school contains an introductory afternoon and seven teaching days, each of which is organized around a topical research question related to the overall theme. Each day will comprise of two main elements, guest speakers presentations and students presentations. The overall number of class contact hours will thus be 48 hours.
The first element consists of a presentation by a guest speaker/expert on a specific topic related to the theme of the school. This will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
The second element consists of presentations by participants of their projects (which may, but do not necessarily have to be part of their PhD research). Each of these presentations, which should be no longer than 10 minutes, will be followed by a rigorous discussion(approximate 45 minutes) with all other participants and staff.
Each day, up to three participants will present their work. Each participant will also act as discussant in one of the sessions.
Best paper winner
The winner of the East European Politics annual Award for the Best Paper in 2020 has been announced.
Nino Petriashvili, a graduating MA student in Political Science Department at Central European University, won the award for the paper “The Effect of Democratic Maturity on Ideological Congruence: Comparative Study of Established and Newly Emerged Democracies”.
The paper was presented at the Third ECPR/ODIHR Summer School on Parties and Democracy (August 2020).
The prize consisted of €100.
East European Politics (EEP) is an international refereed journal that publishes cutting-edge research covering the government, politics and societies across East-Central and South-Eastern Europe, Russia and all the other countries of the former Soviet Union.
Assessment and accreditation
Each participant fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements will receive a certificate of participation.
On special request, PhD researchers' papers may be assessed and credited by staff members of the School. The credits awarded for successful participation and assessment will be 6.5 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits. PhD researchers wishing tohave their work accredited are advised to consult the directors of the school at an early stage.
Online access
It is essential that prospective participants secure good online access for the whole duration of the winter school.
Fees
There are no fees.
Directors
The 2020 winter school is directed by:
- Dr Katarzyna Grzybowska - Walecka - Assistant Professor at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Head of the MA Programme on Politics in Cyberspace and editor of the journal Politologia
- Dr Fernando Casal Bértoa - Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, co-director of REPRESENT, member of theOSCE/ODIHR “Core Group of Political Party Experts”, and co-editor of the Routledge Book Series on Political Parties and PartySystems