italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
CALL FOR PAPERS: PSA 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE, EDINBURGH, 29 MARCH - 1 APRIL 2010
Title: Morality, political scandals and the detachment of citizens from the political process
Convenors: Daniele Albertazzi (Birmingham), James Newell (Salford) and Umut Korkut (University College, Dublin)
Since the early 1990s in many democracies there have been growing levels of public concer n - fuelled partly by high-profile scandals - about the standards of conduct of public office-holders. This is no better exemplified than by the scandal surrounding MPs' expenses in the UK, the recent allegations concerning the conduct of Silvio Berlusconi in the area of personal morality in Italy or the mayhem in Budapest in 2006 after the leaking of a secret speech by Gyurcsány delivered to his party delegates. Of course, these affairs are very different in many respects and timing. What they have in common is that they have ultimately been driven by the perception that the alleged wrong-doing has cheapened the democratic process, resulting in more or less significant losses of authority for the political actors involved. Against this background, important for an understanding of contemporary democratic processes and their quality is knowledge of the role of political scandals and public concerns about probity in the growth of anti-political sentiments, declining turnouts and other manifestations of citizens' detachment from the political process. Comparisons in particular between Eastern and Western Europe would seem to have much to offer: while they have shown the aforementioned signs of citizens' detachment, scandals and public concerns seem to play different roles in each case: for example, though the issues at stake in the British MPs' expenses row and Berlusconi scandals have had much in common, their consequences in terms of voting behaviour and parties' electoral fortunes have so far been rather different. And in Hungary, a leaked speech can even raise doubts about the legitimacy of an elected government.
We invite offers of papers that draw on East and West European cases or both to explore any aspect of the relationship between citizens' political engagement on the one hand, and scandals and concerns about probity, on the other - bearing in mind that the relationship between the two almost certainly goes in both directions and is very likely to be reciprocal. Papers might have a very specific focus, such as this or that election outcome, or they might be much broader, 'think pieces'. What is important is that they should point to at least some conclusions generally relevant for our main variables of concern.
Paper abstracts (circa 250 words) should be e-mailed by 1 September to: Daniele Albertazzi ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ), Jim Newell ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ), Umut Korkut ([log in to unmask]).
For more information, please visit the conference website at: http://www.psa.ac.uk/2010/
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