Formal and Informal Mechanisms of Political Participation
This workshop will attempt to ensure that the broadest possible conceptual and geographic spread of material relating to both formal and informal political participation in the Gulf States is covered. Analytical case studies will be drawn from a wide mix of researchers, and from a very diverse range of disciplinary expertise.
This workshop will attempt to ensure that the broadest possible conceptual and geographic spread of material relating to both formal and informal political participation in the Gulf States is covered. Analytical case studies will be drawn from a wide mix of researchers, and from a very diverse range of disciplinary expertise.
The goal of the workshop is to stimulate a broad mix of papers, that will lead to wide-ranging debates and discussions during the workshop sessions. This will create a rich tapestry of insights woven from the formal and informal mechanisms of political participation in the Gulf. Extensive deliberations, will explore in depth such issues as political culture, identity, regime types, institutions, roles of political ideology, legal frameworks, gender mainstreaming, elite creativity, roles of external forces and factors, place of authoritarian learning when it comes to limiting political participation, and the consequences of absence of political parties. One of the goals of the workshop is to provide the participants with the necessary analytical building blocks for further comparative and historical research in this field of inquiry. An additional goal is to bring together as many research papers on this topic as possible in an effort to ensure that the world at large can also benefit from this research and the ideas that will be discussed during this workshop.