Laurence Whitehead (Official Fellow) continued to write mainly on the comparative politics of democratization. During the year he presented a series of papers on the South American cases, notably in Bogotá, Los Angeles, Uppsala and La Paz. These culminated in his keynote address to the Annual Conference of the Brazilian Political Science Association in Rio de Janeiro (July 2004), which set out an agenda for collaborative research in the lead up to the 20th IPSA conference scheduled to be held in Japan In 2006. Other Latin American research concerned Cuba and Bolivia (where he served as external adviser to the “mock” constituent assembly convened in August 2004). In his second year directing the university’s incipient Centre for Mexican Studies he concentrated mostly on promoting work on Mexican foreign policy (the Centre organised three conferences in Oxford and one at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), although he also worked on citizen security, executive-legislative relations, and fiscal decentralisation.

Other research initiatives included the founding (with support from the IDB) OF A Euro-Latin American Network concerned with ‘governability for development’. Bolivia was an initial priority for this network, which contributed to some of his work there. In June the network, together with the Centre for Mexican Studies and the Latin American Centre, sponsored a two-day conference in Nuffield on the Challenges of Rising Criminality to Democracy and Rule of Law in Latin America. In July 29004 he contributed to a thirtieth anniversary reassessment of the international politics of democratization, in Obidos (Portugal).

In conjunction with Professors Desmond King and Guillermo O’Donnell he also helped organize a conference in College on the ‘Democratisation of the USA’ (March 2004), contributing a study focusing on the second class citizenship accorded to Puerto Ricans.

On the university side this was his third and final year as chair of the Area and Development Studies Committee (about to be transformed into the School for Interdisciplinary and Area Studies).

An unexpected additional responsibility this year arose from his status as the Senior Fellow of the College. In this capacity he presided over the electoral body which chose the next Warden, following the present incumbent’s decision to stand down in 2005.

Publications

‘Democratisation with the Benefit of Hindsight’, in Edward Newman and Roland Rich (eds.), The UN Role in Promoting Democracy: Between Ideals and Reality. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2004, pp 135-165.

(with George Gray-Molina) ‘Political Capabilities over the Long Run’, in Peter P Houtzager and Mick Moore (eds.), Changing Paths: International Development and the New Politics of Inclusion. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2003, pp 32-57.

‘Some Significant Developments in the Field of Democratisation’, in Dirk Berg-Schlosser (ed.), Democratisation: The State of the Art. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2004, pp 32-51.

‘On Cuban Political Exceptionalism’, in Ernesto Verdeja et al (eds.) Cuba and the Varela Initiative: From Dissent to Democratisation. New York: New School University, 2004, (also published in Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, 32, Spring, 127-142, 2004).

‘La Democratización del Desarrollo’, in Carlo Binetti and Fernando Carrillo (eds.), ¿Democracia con Desigualdad? BID/EU, 2004.

‘Bowling in the Bronx’, in Peter Burnell and Peter Calvert (eds.,) Civil Society in Democratisation. London: Frank Cass, 2004, pp 22-42.

‘La Relacion biregional’, in Las Relaciones América Latina-Caribe y Union Europea, special issue of Nueva Sociedad, January/February, 69-79, 2004.

[?Advisory Board – State of Democracy]