UCA News
UCA Site of National Conference on Federalism
Posted in Campus Life on November 04, 2009
The University of Central Arkansas will host a select group of political scientists and practicing politicians to discuss the topic of "The Impact of Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Civil Society Organizations upon American Federalism."
The conference, called "A Global Dialogue on Federalism," is scheduled for Nov. 6.
Those attending the conference will discuss the preparation of a report on how American federal institutions have shaped party and interest group politics and civil discourse in the United States. Scholars will also look at how American federal governance has been affected by those same parties, interests, and civil society.
Participants in the conference include The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; George Mason University in Washington D.C.; the Forum of Federations, a nongovernmental organization in Ottawa, Canada; the University of Missouri at St. Louis; and the University of Texas at Dallas, the UCA's Department of Political Science and other central Arkansas institutions of higher education.
Leaders in state and national politics and international diplomacy also will participate.
UCA political scientist Dr. Gary D. Wekkin was selected as the country coordinator of the United States national conference, which will be held at UCA. Dr. Wekkin will co-author a report on parties and federalism in the United States with UCA political scientist Dr. Joe Howard.
Dr. Wekkin said that the conference and UCA's role in it was "unsolicited and unexpected, and a significant acknowledgement of the political science profession’s respect for the quality of the faculty of the UCA Political Science Department, all of whom will be contributing in some degree to the conference and its report."
Similar conferences on the interactions of federal structure and politics in other countries are being held concurrently at the Australian National University in Canberra, the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, the Universitat Magdeburg in Germany, Jain University in Bangalore, India, the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, the Center for Democracy and Development in Lagos, Nigeria, the University of the Western Cape in Capetown, South Africa, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
The country coordinators of these conferences will gather to present the resulting national reports at an International Roundtable on Parties in Federal Systems in Berlin in 2010. The roundtable is sponsored by the Forum of Federations and the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
The resulting reports will be published globally so that political reformers in democratizing countries can derive lessons from the successes as well as failures of existing federal systems, Dr. Wekkin said. Monographs of fewer than 100 pages for political activists and a larger collection of country essays for professional students of federalism will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in Montreal.
The Forum of Federations is the financial sponsor of the conference being held at UCA. Arrangements for the conference are being handled by the College of Liberal Arts staff and Dean Maurice A. Lee.
The conference, called "A Global Dialogue on Federalism," is scheduled for Nov. 6.
Those attending the conference will discuss the preparation of a report on how American federal institutions have shaped party and interest group politics and civil discourse in the United States. Scholars will also look at how American federal governance has been affected by those same parties, interests, and civil society.
Participants in the conference include The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; George Mason University in Washington D.C.; the Forum of Federations, a nongovernmental organization in Ottawa, Canada; the University of Missouri at St. Louis; and the University of Texas at Dallas, the UCA's Department of Political Science and other central Arkansas institutions of higher education.
Leaders in state and national politics and international diplomacy also will participate.
UCA political scientist Dr. Gary D. Wekkin was selected as the country coordinator of the United States national conference, which will be held at UCA. Dr. Wekkin will co-author a report on parties and federalism in the United States with UCA political scientist Dr. Joe Howard.
Dr. Wekkin said that the conference and UCA's role in it was "unsolicited and unexpected, and a significant acknowledgement of the political science profession’s respect for the quality of the faculty of the UCA Political Science Department, all of whom will be contributing in some degree to the conference and its report."
Similar conferences on the interactions of federal structure and politics in other countries are being held concurrently at the Australian National University in Canberra, the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, the Universitat Magdeburg in Germany, Jain University in Bangalore, India, the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, the Center for Democracy and Development in Lagos, Nigeria, the University of the Western Cape in Capetown, South Africa, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
The country coordinators of these conferences will gather to present the resulting national reports at an International Roundtable on Parties in Federal Systems in Berlin in 2010. The roundtable is sponsored by the Forum of Federations and the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
The resulting reports will be published globally so that political reformers in democratizing countries can derive lessons from the successes as well as failures of existing federal systems, Dr. Wekkin said. Monographs of fewer than 100 pages for political activists and a larger collection of country essays for professional students of federalism will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in Montreal.
The Forum of Federations is the financial sponsor of the conference being held at UCA. Arrangements for the conference are being handled by the College of Liberal Arts staff and Dean Maurice A. Lee.