9th joint Research Seminar on Diversity and Development

Time: May 26, 2015 
Speaker: Franziska Keller, Ph.D. candidate of the New York University, visiting researcher of the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (HSE) 
Title of report: “Shaking hands in public. What elite co-appearances tell us about the politics behind the scenes.”

The International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions are pleased to announce their 8th joint Research Seminar on Diversity and Development. The seminar will take place in the HSE campus building at Slavyanskaya pl. 4/2, room 506, at 4 p.m. on May 26, 2015.

Franziska Keller, Ph.D. candidate of the New York University, visiting researcher of the International Center for the Study Institutions and Development (HSE) will present a paper “Shaking hands in public. What elite co-appearances tell us about the politics behind the scenes.”

Annotation: 
Even though observers of authoritarian regimes and elites have long relied on interpreting public appearances to understand the politics of such opaque governments, there is very little theoretical or systematic empirical research on that topic. The existing literature on public relations in authoritarian regimes views the regime largely as a unitary entity engaged in a battle with the opposition via censorship

and propaganda. In the tradition of the new research of authoritarian regimes, this paper instead focuses on the actions of individual political elites within the regime by examining their co-appearance in public. Using social network analysis on a dataset of 19'000 appearances of 300 top Chinese officials from 2003 until 2014, I show that while public co-appearances are indeed determined by structural factors such as an elite's official position and their policy portfolio, it also reacts factional affiliation. The latter's effect is especially noticeable during less stable times, such as leadership transitions and during the recent anti-corruption campaign. 

Working language of the seminar is English.

We would like to ask everyone who requires a pass to the HSE to send an e-mail to Vladimir Bazavluk (stating your name, surname, your affiliation and contact e-mail address) until 10 a.m. May 26.

Material of the report: PublicCo-AppearancesFranziskaKeller.pdf

 We look forward to seeing you!

tel: (495) 628-86-49; 698-15-49  
e-mail: vbazavluk@hse.ru.