Thursday, November 5 to Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California, Irvine
Funding from American Council of Learned Societies, and UCI’s Office of Research, World History Project, Center for Asian Studies, Department of Sociology and Department of Political Science gratefully acknowledged
Faculty Organizers: Nina Bandelj (Sociology, UCI) and Dorothy Solinger (Political Science, UCI)

(Program in PDF format)
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 – SSPA 1100, UCI

3:30-5:00 KEY NOTE ADDRESS
Leszek Balcerowicz (Warsaw School of Economics), The Institutional Change after Socialism

5:00-6:00 Reception

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 – Hotel Laguna, Laguna Beach, CA

9:00-10:45 PANEL I. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
Valerie Bunce (Cornell) and Sharon Wolchik (George Washington), Democratizing Elections in Postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe: Echoes of 1989?
Daniel Treisman (UCLA), Twenty Years of Political Transition
Joseph Fewsmith (Boston University) , What Zhao Ziyang Tells Us about Elite Politics in the 1980s
Discussants:  Yuliya Tverdova (UCI), Dorothy Solinger (UCI)

10:45-11:00      Coffee Break
 
11:00-12:30  PANEL II. POLITICAL ECONOMY  
Antoni Kaminski (Institute of Political Studies, Warsaw) and Bartlomiej Kaminski (Maryland), Trajectories of Transition from Communism: Bumps, Exits and Deviations
David Stark (Columbia) and Balazs Vedres (Central European University), Political Holes in the Economy: Blockage and Brokerage in Hungary
Discussant:  Marek Kaminski (UCI)

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break

2:00-3:30 PANEL III. STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS
Wang Feng (UCI) and Su Yang (UCI), How Resilient China’s Regime Is and Why: A State Capacity Perspective
Martin Dimitrov (Dartmouth), From Spies to Oligarchs: The Party, the State, the Secret Police and Property Transformations in Post-communist Europe
Discussants:  Guang Lei (San Diego State) and Nina Bandelj (UCI)

3:30 – 3:50    Coffee Break

3:50 – 5:20 PANEL IV. STATE-SOCIETY CONFRONTATIONS
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom (UCI), Outliving the Leninist Extinction: The Curious Case of the CCP’s Longevity
Katherine Verdery (CUNY), Postsocialist Cleansing in Eastern Europe: Purity and Danger in Transitional Justice
Discussant:  Thomas Bernstein (Columbia)

6:15  Dinner

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, Laguna Hotel, Laguna Beach

9:00-10:30 PANEL V. SOCIAL RECONFIGURATIONS
Theodore Gerber (Wisconsin-Madison), Changing Family Formation Behavior in Post-socialist Countries:  Similarities, Divergences, and Explanations in Comparative Perspective
Ivan Szelenyi (Yale) and Katarzyna Wilk (Yale), From Socialist Workfare to Capitalist Welfare State: Competing Strategies and Outcomes of Transformation of Social Institutions in European Neo-patrimonial and Neo-liberal Post-communist Regimes during the Second Phase of Reforms
            Discussant:  Barbara Heyns (NYU)

10:30-10:50    Coffee Break

10:50-12:30 PANEL VI. ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS
Barry Naughton (UCSD), China: Economic and Social Transformation Before and After 1989
Victor Nee (Cornell), Endogenous Institutional Change and Capitalism in China
Akos Rona-Tas (UCSD), Consumer Credit in Post-Communist Countries
Discussants:  Kenneth Pomeranz (UCI), Ewa Balcerowicz (CASE-Warsaw)

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break

2:00-3:30 PANEL VII.  GLOBALIZATION I:  Religion and the World
Robert Weller (Boston University), Globalization and Blind-Eye Governance in China
David Laitin (Stanford) and Amanda Robinson (Stanford), Did Leninism's Fall Pave the Way for Islamism's Rise?
Discussant:  Kate Merkel-Hess (UCI)

3:30 – 3:50    Coffee Break

3:50 – 5:20 PANEL VIII. GLOBALIZATION II:  Economy and the World 
Jozsef Borocz (Rutgers), Reduction to the Absurd: The Geopolitical Economy of Post-State-Socialism (text) (figures)
Wade Jacoby (Brigham Young), Managing Globalization by Managing Central and Eastern Europe: The EU's Backyard as Threat and Opportunity 
Discussant:  David Smith (UCI)

6:15  Dinner
     
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8 – Laguna Hotel, Laguna Beach

9:30 -11:30  Wrap-Up Discussion and Conference Volume Plans