The Personalization of Executive Power: Conceptual, Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

This workshop examines the personalization of executive power, understood as a process in which political leaders increase their concentration of power at the expense of other actors. The workshop is based on the premise that personalization of executive power is of increasing empirical relevance for all political regimes and world regions. Its main goal is to bring together international scholars working on different perspectives and facets of this phenomenon and facilitate discussion across sub-disciplinary divides and analytical and geographical perspectives.

The workshop is guided by three main questions:

1. What is personalization of executive power? How can we operationalize and identify itempirically across regime types?

2. Under which conditions do personalization processes take place? Through whichmechanisms do chief executives personalize their power?

3. What is the impact of personalization on the political regime and political outcomes?

The workshop will answer these questions by discussing processes of executive personalization across regime types and world regions. As such, the workshop will make conceptual, theoretical, and empirical contributions.

The format of the workshop consists of an intensive exchange between all participants. We therefore refrain from presentations by the authors. Instead, each paper will be discussed in a session of 55 minutes between all participants. As a prelude to each session, the discussant will take 10 minutes to summarise the content, the main argument and the main findings of the respective paper and then highlight its strengths and weaknesses. The author(s) will then be given the opportunity to respond. After that we will move on to a general discussion. In order to implement this format, please send us your draft paper by 19 June.

During the final session on Tuesday we will discuss options to submit the revised papers as part of a special issue.