Dr Françoise Boucek, BA (Toronto), MSc, PhD (London: LSE)
Lecturer
Location: Arts One 2.19bemail: f.boucek@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: 020 7882 8583
Office hours:
Monday's 2.05 - 2.55pm or by appointment
External affiliations:
Research Associate, LSE Public Policy Group
Private University of Witten Herdecke (Germany)
Research interests:
Areas of Interest
Comparative and European politics, political parties and party systems, party competition, single-party dominance in mature and emerging democracies, factionalism and intra-party politics, coalitions and legislative bargaining, party cohesion, dissent and partisan politics in European parliaments, representation, electoral systems and electoral reform, European integration and the study of the EU including its institutions, system of governance, policies and democratic representation, European parties and euro scepticism, group behaviour, intra-group conflict and decisional dilemmas, rational choice and new institutionalism, focus group research.
Current Areas of Research
My current research focuses on political parties, especially the comparative study of factionalism in political science, its measurement and impact on dominant political parties, the conceptualisation and measurement of party dominance, the relationship between one-party dominance and factionalism particularly in Britain, Canada, Italy and Japan – the topic of my Oct 2012 monograph titled Factional Politics: How Dominant Parties Implode or Stabilize (Palgrave); the comparative study of dominant party systems and regimes, the relationship between one-party dominance and democracy in competitive and less competitive political systems – the topic of my 2010 co-edited volume with Matthijs Bogaards Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons (Routledge) resulting from an ECPR collaborative project. My current research focuses on the regulation of conflict inside political parties in majoritarian and non-majoritarian democracies and cohesion, dissent and partisan politics in European parliaments, both within ECPR collaborative networks set up in 2009 (Potsdam) and 2011 (St. Gallen).
BIOGRAPHY
I have had a previous career in financial markets in Toronto (Canada) during the 1980s working for Canada’s top investment bank (BMO Nesbitt Burns) as Junior Financial Analyst in the ‘oil and gas’ Research Team and in portfolio management. I also worked in various administrative capacities in commerce and industry in Toronto and Montréal (Canada) and in the UK where I moved from France in the 1970s after finishing my undergraduate studies in business administration.
July 2012: I will be chairing an event at the Lewes Speakers Festival involving three major broadcasters Jonathan Meades, Jonathan Fenby, Theodore Dalrymple in discussion; 'On the future of French society after the May elections'.
Publications:
Monograph
Françoise Boucek (Oct 2012) Factional Politics: How Dominant Parties Implode or Stabilize (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)
Edited Volumes
Françoise Boucek and Matthijs Bogaards eds. (2010) Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons (Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science)
Journal Articles and other Academic Publications
Françoise Boucek (4 May 2012), 'After an inconclusive debate, on the final day of the French presidential election campaign, Hollande is still ahead' EUROPP European Politics and Policy; http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2012/05/04/hollande-sarkozy-election-debate/
Françoise Boucek (11 April 2012), ‘The French elections are too close to call. Watch out left and right!’ EUROPP European Politics and Policy http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/
Françoise Boucek (12 Jan 2012) ‘Canada’s constitutional war with Quebec over its sovereignty suggests that any campaign for Scottish independence will be long and attritional’, British Politics and Policy at LSE http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/
Françoise Boucek (9 May 2011), ‘Alex Salmond would be wise to study Quebec’s travels down the road to independence. So far that road has led nowhere’, British Politics and Policy at LSE
Françoise Boucek (2010) ‘The Factional Politics of Dominant Parties: Evidence from Britain, Italy and Japan’ in Bogaards and Boucek eds. Dominant Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons (Routledge) 117-139
Françoise Boucek (2010) ‘The intra-party dimension of dominance’ in Bogaards and Boucek eds. (2010) Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons (Routledge) 109-115
Françoise Boucek (22 Oct 2010), ‘Can Anglo-French military cooperation fill the gaps of the Strategic Defence Review? British Politics and Policy at LSE
Françoise Boucek (Sept 2010) ‘The Least Worst Option? The Pros and Cons of Coalition Government’, Political Insight Vol.1 (2) 48-51 (Wiley-Blackwell)
Françoise Boucek (14 Sept 2010), ‘Once you recognize that coalition government is a European norm, and is likely to endure in the UK, further changes in British party politics look quite feasible’, British Politics and Policy at LSE
Françoise Boucek (13 May 2010), ‘Is Britain becoming another European consensus democracy?’, British Politics and Policy at LSE
Françoise Boucek (26 April 2010) ‘The Conservatives’ arguments against electoral reform’, British Politics and Policy at LSE
Françoise Boucek (2009) ‘Rethinking Factionalism: Typologies, Intra-Party Dynamics and Three Faces of Factionalism’ Party Politics Vol. 15 (4) 455-485
Patrick Dunleavy and Françoise Boucek (2003) ‘Constructing the Number of Parties’, Party Politics Vol. 9 (3) 291-315 (highly-cited methodological paper)
Françoise Boucek (2002) ‘The structure and dynamics of intra-party politics in Europe’ in Paul Webb and Paul Lewis eds. Perspectives on European Politics and Society Vol. 3 (3) 55-95
Françoise Boucek (2003) ‘The structure and dynamics of intra-party politics in Europe’ in Paul Webb and Paul Lewis eds. Pan-European Perspectives on Party Politics (Brill: Leiden, Boston, Köln) pp 55-95 (13 citations Google Scholar)
Françoise Boucek (1998) ‘Electoral and parliamentary aspects of dominant party systems’ in Paul Pennings and Jan Erik Lane eds. Comparing Party System Change (Routledge: London and New York), 103-124. (19 citations Google Scholar)
Françoise Boucek (1993) ‘Developments in post-war French political economy: the continuing decline of dirigisme?’ in J. Sheldrake and P. Webb eds. State and Market: Aspects of Modern European Development (Dartmouth: Aldershot, Brookfield USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney) 67-86.
Several Book Reviews in: Journal of Common Market Studies, Party Politics, Political Studies Review.
Undergraduate teaching:
Professional activities and outreach:
Contributor to EUROPP Politics and Policy http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/ and British Politics and Policy at LSE (see also Matthew Shugarts Blog on Electoral Reform)
April 2012: Visiting Professor in Comparative Politics, Private University of Witten Herdecke (Germany)
25 Nov 2011: Université Libre de Bruxelles, presentation of my book Factional Politics to Centre d’Etudes de La Vie Politique CEVIPOL research seminar
April 2011: Workshop Director, ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, University of St Gallen (Switzerland) 12-17 April; co-chair Daniela Giannetti, University of Bologna, Italy;
Workshop No 20 ‘Cohesion, Dissent and Partisan Politics in European Legislatures’
Sept 2009: Conference Section Chair, ECPR General Conference,Potsdam (Germany), Section 52: ‘The Organisation of Conflict inside Political Parties’featuring 8 separate panels (co-chair: Richard Katz)
Sept 2009: Conference Panel Chair ‘Factionalism and Intra-party Conflict’
Sept 2005: Panel Chair, ECPR General Conference, Budapest (Hungary) Two panels on ‘Dominant Political Parties and Democracy’ (Open Section Panels 31-8 and 31-9)
April 2005: Workshop Director, ECPR Joint Sessions Granada (Spain) 'Dominant Political Parties and Democracy’ (co-chair Matthijs Bogaards)
Research Associate, LSE Public Policy Group
