Régis Dandoy

Call for Papers
IPSA Wold Congress, Montreal, Canada, 19-24 July 2014
Panel "The Regionalisation of Regional Elections in Latin America"
Chair: Dr. Arjan Schakel. Co-Chair: Dr. Régis Dandoy
http://ipsa.org/my-ipsa/events/montreal2014/panel/regionalisation-regional-elections-latin-america 

Most countries in Latin America have a regional level of government, i.e. the intermediate tier of government situated between the national and the local levels. The regional level possesses its own institutions, often holds (direct) elections and has distinct political actors. This leads to the question whether the regional level is politically distinct from other policy levels and whether region-specific institutions, actors and elections processes can be observed. In this panel, we invite regional election experts from different Latin American countries to reflect upon the question in how far regional elections have (developed) their own logic according to a set of variables and questions.

The rationale for this panel is threefold. First, we would like to challenge the dominant approach in studying regional elections, i.e. second-order theory, by showing its limited explanatory value for most regional elections. Second, regional elections in Latin America are relatively under-studied compared to national elections. With this panel, we would like to provide a valuable data source which will enable scholars to do comparative research. Third, the papers will explore the conditions and variables which differentiate regional elections from those held at the national level. Ultimately, we aim to provide the building blocks for a theory on regional elections and to suggest fruitful avenues to study regional elections in Latin America.

The new submission deadline for paper abstracts is 21 Oct. 2013, and the link to submit a paper can be found here:
http://ipsa.org/events/congress/montreal2014/submit-abstractpaper-proposal.