All seminars are held at noon in the Harris Room (119 Moses Hall), unless otherwise noted.
Spring 2007
February 7: Priya Mathur, CalPERS Board of Administrators
"A Call to Action: The State of Health Benefits."
February 21: Greg Huber, Political Science Department, Yale University
"The Effect of Electoral Competitiveness on Incumbent Behavior."
Fall 2006
September 13: California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim, "Why the 2006 Election Will Determine if the Recall was a Turning Point or an Aberration."
October 4: Assemblyman Juan Arambula, D-Fresno.
October 11: Robert Wickers, co-founder, Dresner, Wickers & Associates.
October 25: Senator Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks.
November 6: Mark DiCamillo, director, Field Poll.
2005
9/28/05
California Assembylman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) discusses his bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of California.
9/30/05
Pulitzer-Prize winning author and Washington Post reporter, David Broder discusses the second-term Bush administration and his predictions for the future.
10/17/05
Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) discsuses his first year in the legislature, his innovative renewable energy legislation, and the obstacles of working in a term-limited environment.
10/27/05
A brown bag lunch with Sen. Bob Margett, R-Arcadia.
10/26/05
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Haynes Johnson discusses his new book, The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism.
10/31/05
A brown bag lunch with Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach.
1999-2001
8/25/99
A preview of the presentations to be given at the American Political Science Association Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in September: Jonathan Bernstein (jhb@uclink4.berkeley.edu) "Friends & Neighbors Donate: How Social Networks Finance and Affect Legislative Campaigns." Raymond LaRaja (rlaraja@socrates.berkeley.edu) "The Impact of Soft Money on State Party Behavior." Jonathan Cohen/Thad Kousser (tkousser@uclink4.berkeley.edu) /John Sides (jsides@uclink4.berkeley.edu) "Purposive and Expressive Voter Behavior in California's Blanket Primary." Terri L. Bimes (bimes@socrates.berkeley.edu) "A New Migration of Political Forces: Party Decline and Plebiscitary Presidential Leadership in late 19th Century America."
8/31/99
Brunetta Baldi, (baldi@spbo.unibo.it) Visiting Scholar, Universita degli studi di Bologna, "Beyond the Federal-Unitary Dichotomy."
9/16/99
Milos Calda, (milos.calda@ff.cuni.cz) Director of American Studies, Charles University, "Implications of Czech NATO membership on Czech & American Policy."
9/28/99
H. Peter Oberlander, Professor Emeritus, Community & Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, "Housing Policy: A Comparative View of the Canadian and American Perspective." Co-sponsored by Canadian Studies.
10/13/99
Lynn Sherr, ABC News, 20/20, "Gearing up to Cover the 2000 Elections."
10/20/99
Douglas N. Jones, Ohio State University, Visiting Scholar at GSPP, "The Fairness Criterion in Public Utility Regulation: Does It Still Matter?"
10/21/99
Alan Rosenthal, Rutgers University, "The Good Legislature: Getting Beyond 'I Know It When I See It'."
10/26/99
Zoltan Hajnal, (zhajnal@weber.ucsd.edu) Public Policy Institute of California, "White Voters, Black Incumbents & a Declining Racial Divide."
11/3/99
Jonas Sjostedt, Swedish Representative to the European Parliament, "The European Union in Transition to a Federal State."
11/4/99
Martin Lubin, State University New York, Plattsburgh, "From PQ to BQ: Quebec Sovereignist Participation in Canadian Federal Politics." Co-sponsored by Canadian Studies.
11/10/99
Lynn Sanders, Robert Wood Johnson Fellow, Rutgers University, "Political Efficacy and Psychological Distress."
11/23/99
Mike McDonald, Vanderbilt University, "A Simple Explanation for Declining Turnout Rates: The Denominator Did It."
12/1/99
Johan Klehs, Chairman of the California State Board of Equalization, "Taxation with Representation: California's Board of Equalization."
12/7/99
Yitzhak Galnoor, Hebrew University, former head of the Israeli Civil Service, and Visiting Scholar at GSPP, "Decaffeinated Espresso: Prime Ministerial Direct Elections in Israel."
1/24/00
Peter Lydon, (ptrlydon@socrates.berkeley.edu) Visiting Scholar at IGS, "The Politics of Global Warming."
1/27/00
Raphael Sonenshein, California State University at Fullerton, "Urban Reform for the New Century: The Politics of Charter Reform in Los Angeles, 1996-99."
2/17/00
Forrest Maltzman, George Washington University, "Payoffs, Grudges and Signals: Speaker Cannon and the Politics of Committee Assignments."
2/24/00
Paul Taylor, Executive Director of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, "How to Create Better Campaigns."
2/25/00
Martyn Webb, (mjwebb@cyllene.uwa.edu.au) University of Western Australia, "The Australian Republican Referendum and its Crushing Defeat."
4/12/00
Jeannette Money, (jnmoney@ucdavis.edu) U.C. Davis, "Xenophobia and Xenophilia: Immigrant Voters as Counterweights to the Extreme Right."
4/19/00
Dan Schnur, (danschnr@ix.netcom.com) former Director of Communication for John McCain and IGS Visiting Scholar, "Straight Talk Talk."
4/25/00
Elizabeth Drew, author of The Corruption of American Politics, "The Corruption of America: What Went Wrong and Why."
5/2/00
Gus di Zerega, (gusdz@sonic.net) Visiting Scholar, IGS, "Democracy as a Self-Organizing System."
5/4/00
Rod Gould, (rod.gould@ci.san-rafael.ca.us) City Manager of San Rafael and the Stone & Youngberg California Local Executive-in-Residence, "Semi-Rational Exuberance: The Outlook of a City Manager Facing the New Country."
10/3/00
Dan Schnur, National Director of Communications for McCain 2000, Visiting Scholar at IGS
"Bush or Gore: Why the McCain Voters will Decide the Election."
10/4/00
Carla Marinucci and John Wildermuth, Political Reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle
"Tales from the Campaign Trail"
9/05/00
Gillian Peele, Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
"The Norton Commission, the Conservative Party and Parliamentary Reform"
09/07/00
Nathaniel Persily, Staff Attorney, Brennan Center at NYU Law School and Ph.D candidate at UCB
"The Regulation of Party Nomination Methods: CA Democratic Party v. Jones, John McCain, and Beyond"
09/12/00
William Tuohy, Former Director of the National Pilot Project on Base Conversion and Implementation
"Program Politics of Military Base Conversion"
09/20/00
Paul Maslin, Democratic political consultant pollster, & advisor to Governor Gray Davis
"The Democratic Prospects in California and the Nation"
09/22/00
Kathay Feng, Project Director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern CA
"Redistricting and the Asian Pacific American Community"
10/04/00
Carla Marinucci and John Wildermuth, political reporters for the SF Chronicle
"Tales from the Campaign Trail"
10/12/00
Darry Sragow, Political Consultant & Chief Strategist, CA Assembly Democratic Caucus
"California Campaigns: How to Win Elections and Influence Voters"
10/24/00
Dan Schnur, National Director of Communications for McCain 2000 & Visiting Scholar at IGS
"Bush or Gore: Why the McCain Voters Will Decide the Election"
10/25/00
Mervin Field, Founder of the Field Poll and President of the Field Institute
"What the Polls Really Say About 2000"
11/01/00
Debra Saunder, Columnist, SF Chronicle
Book discussion: The World According to Gore
11/15/00
Arnold Koller, former President of Switzerland, and Austin Ranney, Professor Emeritus, UCB & co-editor of Referendums Around the World: The Growing Use of Direct Democracy
"Direct Democracy in Switzerland & the United States"
12/12/00
Phillip Trounstine, Communications Director for Governor Gray Davis
"Fact vs. Truth, Skepticism vs. Cynicism and Other Notes from the Dark Side"
12/13/00
Timothy Duane City and Regional Planning, UCB
"Water Over the Dam? PG&E's Proposed Hydro Divestiture and California's Electricity Crisis"
1/31/01
Lee Friedman, Goldman School of Public Policy
"Questions and Answers on California's Electricity Restructuring"
02/14/01
Severin Borenstein, UCB
"Solving CA's Electricity Crisis"
03/08/01
E.J. Dionne, Jr, Jefferson Lecturer and Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution
"Is There a Politics of the Common Good?"
03/14/01
Peter Lydon and Antonia Herzog, Visiting Scholars at IGS-UCSD/UCB
"The Politics of Global Warming"
03/20/01
Kevin Esterling, Robert Wood Johnson Fellow, UCB
"Does Policy Research Matter in Lobbying Debates?"
04/12/01
Bill Boyarsky, Former City Editor of the LA Times
Talk on the LA mayor's race
04/18/01
Rich White, CEO of Technet
No title available for talk
04/25/01
Av Westin, Former Executive Producer of ABC News, Twentieth Century Project, 20/20 & ABC World News Tonight
"How Television Covers Politics"
05/03/01
Michael Nacht Dean of GSPP, UCB
No title for talk available
09/04/01
Peter Merkl Professor Emeritus, UCSB
"A Group Attempt in Washington?: Europe Reacts to the Clinton Impeachment"
09/18/01
Jeff Brown, California Public Utilities Commission
"Transforming Public Regulation: CA After the Energy Crisis"
09/24/01
Rob MacCoun, Professor of Public Policy at the GSPP and Professor of Law at Boalt Hall, UCB
"Drug War Heresies: Learning from Other Vices, Times and Places"
10/18/01
Nick Bollman, Chair of the Speaker's Commission on Regionalism for Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and President of the CA Center for Regional Leadership
"Civic Entrepreneurs and Regional Stewards: California's New Regionalism"
10/25/01
David Edgar, British playwright working on a two part cycle of plays for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
"The Drama of Politics and the Politics of Drama"