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The University of British Columbia
- a place of mind
- The University of British Columbia
- Department of Political Science
Office: Buchanan C322
Office phone: (604) 822-4559
Email: bnyblade(at)politics.ubc.ca
Website: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/bnyblade/
Benjamin Nyblade (Ph.D. University of California, San Diego) joined the department as an Assistant Professor in July 2006 after spending two years in the department as a Killam Research Fellow. His primary research topics are in comparative democratic institutions, political parties and elections around the world (with a particular emphasis on Japan and Western Europe). Current research projects investigate the effect of electoral system reform in Japan, the dynamics of coalition government formation and duration in Western Europe, and theories of party competition. Other interests include Japanese foreign policy, empirical political theory and research methodology.
2012-13 Teaching - Term 2 Only
POLI 423A/516C: Measuring Democracy
Orwell wrote that "defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning." In this seminar we consider how we might overcome this challenge, assessing competing conceptualizations of democracy, evaluating attempts to measure democracy cross-nationally and over time, and reviewing attempts to systematically evaluate the consequences of democracy for economic development, citizen welfare, and domestic and international peace.
The assignments in this seminar focus on how we can convey political science research to non-academic audiences. In particular we will focusing on writing for the general public as well as for NGOs and governments. Each student will maintain a blog, shared with class members, and are assigned to write several (short) blog posts each week, and are expected to comment on other blogs. There are two longer writing assignments: a 2000-word research report and a 3000-word review of academic literature, both targeted at an NGO audience. Students will work online and in-class in small groups to discuss and improve their blog posts and paper assignments, and have the opportunity 'revise and resubmit' papers based on extensive feedback from fellow students.
Dr. Nyblade welcomes working with those students interested in political institutions, parties and elections around the world.
Current Ph.D. Supervision
Nathan Allen, "Ethnicity, Patronage and Party Politics in Indonesia"
Aim Sinpeng, "Social Movements in Thailand"
Current Ph.D. Committees
Go Murakami, "Ethnic Cues and Voting Behavior in Canada and Japan"
Anastasiya Salnykova, "Electoral Politics and Ethnic Identity Polarization in Ukraine"
Jonathan Tomm, "The Emergence of Normative Relations out of Political Conflict"
Recent Supervision
Zhen Han, "The Capitalist Peace Revisited", 2012 M.A. (Supervisor)
Netina Tan, "Hegemonic Party Rule in Singapore and Taiwan" 2010 Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Royce Koop, "The Federal Organization of Canada's Liberal Party" 2008 Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Nathan Allen, "Institutional Reform and Party Systems", 2006 M.A. (Supervisor)
Articles
“Who Cheats? Who Loots? Political Competition and Corruption in Japan, 1947-1993” American Journal of Political Science 52(4), October, 2008. (With Steven R. Reed).
“Electoral Incentives in Mixed Member Systems: Party, Posts and Zombie Politicians in Japan.” American Political Science Review 100(2), May 2006. (With Robert Pekkanen and Ellis S. Krauss).
“ ‘Presidentialization’ in Japan? The Prime Minister, Media and Elections in Japan.” British Journal of Political Science 35(2), April 2005. (With Ellis S. Krauss)
“Japan: The Prime Minister and the Japanese Diet” Journal of Legislative Studies 10(2/3), Summer/Autumn 2004. (With Mikitaka Masuyama)
Book Chapters
“The Empirical Study of Cabinet Governance.” In Strøm, Müller and Bergman, eds., Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (With Torbjörn Bergman, Elisabeth R. Gerber and Scott Kastner)
“Government Formation and Cabinet Type in Parliamentary Democracies.” In Strøm, Müller and Bergman, eds., Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (With Paul Mitchell)
“Conclusion: Cabinet Governance in Parliamentary Democracies.” In Strøm, Müller and Bergman, eds., Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (With Kaare Strøm, Wolfgang C. Müller and Torbjörn Bergman)
“Coalition Theory and Government Formation.” In Boix and Stokes, eds., Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. (With Kaare Strøm)
