POLS PIRSS Seminars Series

Europe under threat: intra-institutional and cross-border challenges

Diplomacy in Crisis: Effect of President Zelensky's Diplomatic Endeavors 
Tamara Grechanaya
(NASP-Unimi)

Exposure to democracy and MEPs attitude toward EU integration
Matilde Ceron
(Paris Lodron Universitat Salzburg)

07 June 2024, h.12.30
Seminar Room Conservatorio & online
Via Conservatorio 7 - Milan 

Abstracts

Tamara Grechanaya | Diplomacy in crisis: effect of President Zelensky's Diplomatic Endeavors
In the past year, President Zelensky dedicated an impressive 1.5 months to foreign diplomatic trips—an extraordinary commitment for a leader steering a nation through the complexities of war. The outcomes of high-level diplomatic interactions have been extensively studied, with literature generally predicting a positive effect in terms of public support toward the visiting leader. While it is also commonly assumed that these high-level diplomatic engagements could potentially catalyze an upswing in both state (military and financial) and public (private donations) support in the countries engaged, scant attention has been devoted to empirically testing whether such contacts actively shape assistance in times of crisis. This research aims to bridge this gap, scrutinizing the effects of the public diplomatic efforts undertaken by the Ukrainian political leadership on support initiatives at both state and private levels during times of conflict. For this purpose, we combined several datasets related to different public and private aids to Ukraine with information concerning the diplomatic efforts of the Zelensky office toward political elites and citizens of foreign countries. The aim is to ascertain whether high-level and public diplomacy can wield influence over the occurrence and magnitude of support offered during the war. To address potential endogeneity issues and the non-random timing of diplomatic contacts, a quasi-experimental design will be adopted.

Matilde Ceron | Exposure to democracy and MEPs attitude toward EU integration
This paper analyzes the effect of exposure to democracy during adolescence and early adulthood on the pro-EU attitude of the members of the European Parliament. Relying on the psychological theory of 'impressionable years', we test whether members exposed to less democratic regimes at the age of 18 to 25 have a higher probability of voting against pro-EU instances in the roll-call-voting of the first six legislatures, from 1979 to 2009. Our results suggest that exposure to democracy increases the probability of voting in favor of pro-EU policies by about 2%-7%, depending on the legislature. We find that the effect is stronger in votes with a significant cleavage on EU instances, while it is irrelevant in votes that do not involve them. Our results take into account heterogeneity in political groups, country of election, year of birth, and legislature and resist several robustness checks. (Paper in coauthorship with Andrea Fazio, Francesco Scervini)

This seminar is part of the POLS Political Institutions & Regimes (PIRSS) Seminar Series
(Organizing Committee: Andrea Cassani, Tamara Grechanaya, Andrea Pedrazzani)

For an overview of the PhD Political Studies Seminar Series, click HERE