Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague and Taipei Cultural and Economic Office in Prague invite for the international conference Democracy, State and Informal Politics in Comparative Perspective, which will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague on 20th November 2014.

Keynote Speakers:
Svend-Erik Skaaning, Aarhus University
Cheng-Hao Pao, Tamkang University

Conference Topic
Formal state institutions, rules and organizations are ubiquitous worldwide. However, political scientists can hardly expect that politicians strictly follow codified rules and that these rules are the only working ones. Nevertheless, impacts and effects of informal politics on states and democratic regimes are ambiguous. On the one hand, clientelistic networks can even substitute a well-functioning state structure and cause the breakdown of democratic regimes. On the other hand, informal institutions may fill in gaps of formal state institutions by dealing with contingencies. Considering this background, an interdisciplinary dialogue on informal politics and on the intersection of informal politics, the state and democracy is gaining increasing importance, especially since informality has remained at the margin of political science.

We welcome contributions from political scientists, historians, sociologists and other academics in Humanities and Social Sciences. Papers should cover one or several themes related to informal politics and we welcome both theoretical and empirical papers. No geographic restrictions are imposed.

Recommended topics of papers are as following:
• State-building, state capacity, failed state and informal politics
• Clientelism, corruption and state
• Intersection of formal institutions and informal politics
• Democracy and informal politics
• Institutional stability-change and informal politics
• Civil society and informal politics
• Political parties, elections and informal politics

All questions regarding the conference shall be sent to informalpolitics@gmail.com