Political Institutions

Coordinators: Prof. Silvana Krause, PhD (UFRGS), Bruno Conceição, MA (UFRGS), Luiz Eduardo Garcia, MA (UFRGS) and Vinicius de Lara Ribas (UFRGS).

Political institutions include both the organizations that coordinate collective action inasmuch as the rules of each decision-making arena that imposes incentives for the strategies that each actor seeks to adopt. Hence, we can understand as political institutions: parties, the party system, the electoral system, the federal arrangement, the characteristics and the effects of forms of government (presidential, parliamentary, semi-presidential, etc.), as well as the relationship between government and opposition and among the executive, legislative and judicial branches – including state agencies such as the Public Ministry, the Account Courts, among others. From this perspective, the proposal of the working group is to promote the theoretical, methodological and empirical debate related to political institutions – either in the comparative perspective or from specific cases.

 

Public Policy

Coordinators: Prof. Lígia Mori Madeira, PhD (UFRGS), Luciana Pappi, MA (UFRGS), Alexander Ben Rodrigues, MA (UFRGS).

This working group aims to stimulate contemporary reflections on: 1) public policy making – emphasizing the role of institutions, actors, politicians and bureaucratic processes in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of these policies; tests trajectories; the dynamics of intergovernmental relations; relations between political and social actors and the role of bureaucracy; 2) the growing interrelationship between national institutions and international organizations in the making of these policies; 3) social policies to combat poverty and of income transfer; 4) regulatory policies; 5) control measures, transparency and corruption in public institutions; 6) the judiciary and public policy; 7) regulatory agencies, public security and criminal justice policies; 8) variations in public spending.

 

Political Culture and Public Opinion

Coordinators: Prof. Rodrigo Stumpf Gonzalez, PhD (UFRGS), Rodolfo Marques, MA (UFRGS), Camila Vasconcelos, MA (UFRGS) and Jessica Duarte (UFRGS).

This working group is intended to discuss academic papers that develop different perspectives on the relationship between behavior and politics – within the theories of Political Culture and Social Capital, as well as the empirical analysis of phenomena related to political communication and public opinion.

 

Political Theory and Social Brazilian Thought

Coordinators: Prof. Hélio Alves, PhD (UFRGS), Luana Bassegio (UFRGS) and Maíra Cabral (UFRGS).

Political theory, usually accompanied by reflections on the history of Brazilian political thought, is being further consolidated every year in the Brazilian political science, as demonstrated by the growth of thematic working group and seminars at ANPOCS and ABCP. In this sense, this working group aims to bring together research papers that deal with the various areas of political theory – classical or contemporary – history of ideas and Brazilian political and social thought.

 

Gender, Human Rights and Citizenship

Coordinators: Prof. Jussara Reis Prá, PhD (UFRGS), Elena Schuck, MA (UFRGS), Terezinha Maria Woelffel Vergo, MA (UFRGS).

This working group proposes the debate on gender relations and social inequalities within the framework of feminist studies in the Latin American context and it has as a milestone the fundamental concept of human rights. The notion of citizenship as polysemic concept comprises interpretations concerning social, historical, political as well as legal dimensions. This context is shared with the concept of fundamental rights. Therefore, this working group will prioritize papers that focus on the construction of gender equity in the feminist and human rights perspectives, bearing in mind the intersections of these subjects with generational, ethnic-racial, geographical, class and sexuality issues. The research contributions may deal with one of the following aspects: citizenship, participation and women’s political representation; human rights of women; social justice; gender stereotypes and ideologies; sexism, racism and homophobia; de/postcolonial feminisms; feminist methodologies and epistemologies; public policies on gender, new institutions and gender violence.

 

Democracy and Political Participation

Coordinators: Prof. Alfredo Gugliano, PhD (UFRGS), Alexander Arns (UFRGS), Guilherme Stein (UFRGS) and Priscila Rodrigues (UFRGS).

This panel will discuss papers that address the different processes of societal democratization, with special interest in cases in which citizens have expanded their power of deliberation in the public management sphere. Amid the many different ways to develop this perspective, we can mention some of the most well know: participatory budgeting, public consultations, plebiscites, management councils, communal centers, community assemblies, among others. The analyses submitted to this panel may address these issues from different theoretical perspectives as well as through empirical researches. Therefore, there is room to develop a vast diversity of subjects that are involved in the processes of democratization and participation: citizenship, participatory democracy, quality of democracy, development councils, human rights, gender, media, participatory budgeting, social movements, etc.

 

Defence Policy and International Security

Coordinators: Prof. Carlos Arturi, PhD (UFRGS), Guilherme Ziebell, MA (UFRGS), Mariana Cheise (UFRGS)

This working group aims to bring together researchers investigating different aspects of public policies on national defense. This involves both (i) the structuring of national defense apparatus over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their articulations between the political sector and the military in modern states; and (ii) the formulation and implementation of national defense policies addressing: interstate conflict, the new threats of the twenty-first century and the alliance making patterns and securitarian international organizations.

 

Elites and Political Power

Coordinators: Prof. Fabiano Engelmann, PhD (UFRGS), João Gilberto Lima, MA (UFRGS), Juliane Bento, MA (UFRGS) and Júlia Veiga (UFRGS).

This working group will receive articulated papers in two areas: 1) the study of ruling groups and their relation to the exercise of the power, among which are: the judiciary, the political power, the bureaucratic power, the economic power and the scientific power. The recruitment and selection of judicial, political, economic, parliamentary, bureaucratic and scientific elites; 2) the social legitimacy of political power in Brazil and Latin American countries in comparative perspective, political thought and legitimation of political power, political sociology of institutions, social and political relations, activism, clientelism, authoritarianism and political patronage.

 

International Politics

Coordinators: Prof. André Luiz Reis da Silva, PhD (UFRGS), Alexander Spohr (UFRGS) and João Marcelo (UFRGS).

This working group aims to bring together researches related to contemporary international relations, in both empirical and theoretical perspectives. The goal is to strengthen the study of the main issues in the area and promote a broader understanding of foreign policies and regional integration processes. The working group also embraces studies on geopolitics, Brazilian foreign policy, regional integration, cooperation and development, international organizations, international political economy, culture and power in the international arena. In this sense, this working group emphasizes also the importance of the debate on the bases of the balance of power in the international system and its configuration for the twenty-first century.