Curriculum Vitae
Brandon C. Zicha
Dept. of Political Science
Binghamton University
Binghamton NY, 13902
U.S.A.
&
e-mail: [email protected]
Dept. Politieke Wettenschappen
Universiteit van Antwerpen
M 270
Sint Jacobstraat 2
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
e-mail: [email protected]
Dissertation Constitutions, Parties, and Policy Change
My dissertation deals with the speed of policy change. Most theories suggest that policy makers will
change policy as rapidly as possible to match their ideological goals if unconstrained by separations
of powers. In this view the only way to slow this process is to give policy makers with different goals
the ability to veto or partially veto those changes to current policy. In my dissertation I build a case
that political parties and governments have varying tendencies, depending on how they are able to
control their members and the nature of their constituency, to voluntarily slow the pace of policy
change so as to allow constituents to adjust to these changes. Failure to do so may result in parties
losing votes in the next election due to the unintended side effects of changes, such as higher taxes
than predicted, or simple transition costs like the difficulty small business will have if you raise the
minimum wage too quickly. Using data from advanced democracies I show that both veto effects
from separations of power and slowed implementation are responsible for observed speeds of policy
change.
(Prospectus successfully defended March 2008)
Research Interests Policy change and reform, policy representation, information processing in
democracies, comparative political economy, politics of advanced industrialized and post-communist
countries, the measurement and origin of the policy preferences of political actors, and quantitative
methods.
Education:
PhD in Political Science from Binghamton University, (anticipated Spring 2010)
Masters of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University, May 2007
Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Grinnell College, December 2002
Other Educational Experiences:
Winter School on “Multilevel modeling in political science,” Barcelona, Spain 11th -14th of January,
2009
“An Introduction to Time Series Analysis and Forecasting with STATA”, Cass Business School,
London 10th – 13th 2008
Luxembourg Income Study Summer Workshop, Luxembourg, Summer
2007.
ICPSR Summer School in Quantitative Methods, Ann Arbor Michigan,
Workshop in Advanced Game Theory & Lecture in Complex Systems
Summer 2006
Papers Under Review
Zicha, Brandon C., and Steve B. Lem. "The Constraints of Collective
Bargaining Institutions on Party Policy Positions."
Zicha, Brandon C. and Lucie Spanihelova “Party Competition on the Issue
of the European Union the New Europe: A Manifesto-Based Approach.”
Zicha, Brandon C. and Conor Dowling. "Do National Parties Coordinate in
the House to Aid their Allies and Fight their Foes in the States?"
Bell, Sam and Brandon C. Zicha. "U.S. Presidential Constituency
Preferences, Macroeconomic Policy, and the Diversionary Use of Force"
Conference Presentations
“Towards a general micro-level theory of agenda setting: how preferences, information, and
institutions drive legislative agenda setting ”with Stefaan Walgrave and Rens Vliegenthart
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, CA
September 4th, 2009
“Towards a political theory of agenda-setting: Reintegrating political actors for comparative research”
with Stefaan Walgrave
- Presented at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Comparative Policy Agendas Working
Group in The Hague, Netherlands, June 19th, 2009
“Can Elections Prime the Pump for Policy Punctuations?”
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, USA
April 3rd, 2009.
“Salience and the Art of Manipulation in Party Representation on the Issue of the European Union
in Central and Eastern Europe: A Manifesto-Based Approach” with Lucie Spanihelova
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, USA
April 3rd, 2009.
“Framing the ‘NO’: Setting the Agenda for Treaty Failure in the Netherlands and Ireland” with
Tobias van Assche, Jeroen Joly, Lucie Spanihelova
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association Chicago, USA,
April 3rd 2009
“Procedures for Coding Manifestos within the Comparative Agendas Project”
- Presented at the Comparative Policy Agendas Working Group Workshop, Geneva
Switzerland December 19th, 2008
“Preliminary Procedures of Comparative Agendas Project Manifesto Coding”
- Presented at the Workshop on Coding the Media, a Comparative Policy Agendas Working
Group Conference, October 2nd, 2008.
“Party Competition on the Issue of the European Union the New Europe: A Manifesto-Based
Approach.” With Lucie Spanihelova
-Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, March 27th, 2008.
"U.S. Presidential Constituency Preferences, Macroeconomic Policy, and the Diversionary Use of
Force," with Sam Bell.
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference,
June 25th-27th June, 2007
"The Constraints of Collective Bargaining Institutions on Party Policy Positions: Supporting the
"Varieties of Capitalism" with Partisan Equilibrium,” with Steve Lem
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 13th,
2007
"Do National Parties Coordinate in the House to Aid their Allies and Fight their Foes in the States?"
with Conor M. Dowling.
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 13th,
2007
“Voting on the Welfare Dimension: Institutional Capacity’s Effect on Issue Salience, Vote Choice,
and Policy.” with Steve B. Lem.
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 20th,
2006.
"The Constraints of Collective Bargaining Institutions on Party Policy Positions"
- Presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, March 22nd 2006,
San Diego, California.
“Rent Seeking and Coalition Formation: How the Structure of Risks Changes the Way Players Pool
Resources in a Rent-Seeking Game.” with Katherine Anderson and Steve B. Lem.
- Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Economic Science Association, October 1st, 2005.
Tucson, AZ.
"Narrow Interests or the Scandinavian Experience?: The Institutional Foundations of Societal
Investment." with Katri Sieberg.
- Presented at the Annual meeting the American Political Science Association, September 2nd,
2005. Washington D.C.
Positions Held
PhD Researcher for M2P Research Group in Belgian Branch of Comparative Agendas Project
July 15th, 2008 - present
Research Assistant for Olga Shvetsova – Spring 2008
Instructor of record - PLSC Nation Building - Designing Efficient Democracies,
Second Summer Session 2007
Research Associate for the Center on Democratic Performance, Binghamton University - Fall 2006 –
Fall 2007
Instructor of record - PLSC 113 Introduction to Comparative Politics,
First Summer Session 2006
Teaching Assistant - PLSC 111 Introduction to American Politics for
Professor Jonathan Krasno - Fall Semester 2007
Teaching Assistant - PLSC 117 Introduction to World Politics for Professor
Benjamin Fordham - Spring Semester 2006
Teaching assistant - PLSC 115 Introduction to Ideas and Politics (Political
Theory) For Professor Robert Ostergard - Fall Semester 2005
Jan. – March 2003: English-speaking client Liaison for Jiri Spanihel Design
Studio, Koprivnice, Czech Republic
June – August 2002: Intern at EastWest Institute, Prague Centre, Czech
Republic.
August 2002: Assistant Grant Writer and Research Consultant for
Europeum, European Policy forum.
Professional Services
Conference Coordinator for 2008 Coding the Media Workshop, for the Comparative Agendas
Workshop, October 3rd of 2008, Antwerp, Belgium
Conference Coordinator for 2007 Conference on the Dynamics of Party Position Taking for the
Center on Democratic Performance, March 23rd - 24th, in Binghamton, NY
President of Political Science Graduate Student Organization, Binghamton University, 2005-2006
Academic Year
Scholarships and Awards
Hinman Summer Research Fellowship
– Summer 2007, Binghamton University
Hinman Summer Research Fellowship
– Summer 2006, Binghamton University
Hinman Summer Research Fellowship
– Summer 2005, Binghamton University
Hinman Graduate Fellowship
– Fall 2004 – Spring 2005, Binghamton University
Trustee Honor Scholarship from Grinnell College for all enrolled semesters.
Rosenfield Summer Internship Fellow from Rosenfield Program, Grinnell College for Summer 2002
Internship.
Professional Memberships
American Political Science Association
Midwest Political Science Association
European Consortium for Political Research
Languages
English(native); Czech (Good); Dutch(Reading – Fair; Spoken – conversational); Russian (Fair)
Software Expertise
Statistical: STATA (expert), R (good), SPSS (proficient)
Textual Analysis: AmCAT (expert), iNET(expert)
Presentation: MS Word (expert), MS Powerpoint (expert), LaTeX (good)
Web Design: HTML (proficient), Dreamweaver (expert), iWeb (expert)
Educational: Blackboard (proficient)
References
Michael D. McDonald
Department of Political Science
Binghamton University
Binghamton NY, 13902
(607)777-4563
Olga Shvetsova
Department of Political
Science
Binghamton University
Binghamton NY, 13902
(607)777-4230
Katri Sieberg
Department of Political
Science
Binghamton University
Binghamton NY, 13902
(607)777-4374
Stefaan Walgrave
Dept. Politieke Wettenschappen
University of Antwerp
Stadscampus
S.M.277
Sint Jacobstraat 2
2000 Antwerpen
+32 032655725
David Ellison
Visiting Fellow
Institute for World
Economics
Orszaghaz utca 30
1014 Budapest, Hungary
+36-30-693-1057