America Days

Monday, March 17 at 19:00
Professor Eric Uslaner
Speaker-Specialist on American Elections
American Corner
KOPER

Eric M. Uslaner - Biography

Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland--College Park, where he has taught since 1975. In 1997-1998 he was Distinguished University Research Fellow at the University of Maryland and in 1981-82 he was Fulbright Lecturer and Visiting Professor, Departments of American Studies and Political Science, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Professor Uslaner received his B.A. from Brandeis University cum laude with Honors in Politics in 1968 and his M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) in Political Science from Indiana University.   In 2006 he was appointed the first Senior Research Fellow at the Center for American Law and Political Science at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China.
 
His books include The Movers and the Shirkers: Representatives and Ideologues in the Senate (University of Michigan Press, 1999); The Decline of Comity in Congress (University of Michigan Press, 1993), Shale Barrel Politics: Energy and Legislative Leadership (Stanford University Press, 1989). His current research focuses on why people trust each other, primarily in the United States but also across nations. His most recently published book (click here to download) is The Moral Foundations of Trust, which has been published by Cambridge University Press.  Click here to order from Cambridge University Press or from amazon.com. 
Uslaner's new book, The Bulging Pocket and the Rule of Law: Corruption, Inequality, and Trust, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.  See details on the new corruption web page.
 
Uslaner teaches courses in American politics (especially on Congress and Congressional elections), social capital, and institutional design.
 
He is the co-editor of Institutions and Social Order (University of Michigan Press, 1998).  He has received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to examine "Inequality, Trust, and Civic Engagement" (click here to download the proposal in WordPerfect or Adobe Acrobat format).  Uslaner was also the recipient of the Mentor of the Year Award from the Southern Regional Education Board.  Uslaner is also working with Professors Paul Sum of the University of North Dakota and Gabriel Badescu of Babes-Bolyai University on trust and civic engagement in  Romania and Moldova, with funding from the Institutional Review and Exchanges Board (IREX) Black and Caspian Sea Collaborative Research Program.  See preliminary findings from the surveys of the mass publics and organizational activists in Romania and Moldova and their article in Eastern European Politics and Society.

Uslaner is frequently quoted in the press (see the summary of his work on trust in the Washington Post's "Unconventional Wisdom" column on June 27, 1999 and the earlier Post story on trust in January, 1996). He talked about trust in other people on the "Chip Franklin Show" on WMAL radio, the ABC-owned newstalk station in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 1999. To listen to the radio interview using Real Player, click here.   He also discussed The Moral Foundations of Trust on NPR's program On Point with Tom Ashbrook (produced by WBUR Boston) on December 30, 2002.  Click here to listen to the program.

KEYNOTE SPEECHES: Uslaner has spoken widely about his work, giving keynote speeches at the Conference on "Trust in the Knowledge Society" at the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) in September, 2002; at the International Conference on Social Capital of the Economic and Research Institute of the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, Tokyo, March 2003; at  at the Conference on Achieving Global Equity: The Challenges Facing Universities, Governments and Business," University of Plymouth (United Kingdom), sponsored by INRUDA (International Network in the Role of Universities in Developing Areas), the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Management, the Policy Studies Organization, and the International Social Development Unit (University of Calgary), July 17, 2006;  at the  Conference, "Understanding Diversity: Mapping and Measuring," Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Italy, supported by Marie Curie Series of Conferences, EURODIV - Cultural Diversity in Europe: a Series of Conferences, Milan, Italy, January 26-27, 2006; at the Conference on "Tax Evasion, Trust, and State Capacities," St. Gallen University, St. Gallen, Switzerland, October 17-19, 2003; and at the Conference on Trust in Multicultural Cities, Fifth ENGIME (Economic Growth and Innovation in Multicultural Environments) Workshop, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece, January 19-20, 2004; and at the symposium on "Democracy and Social Capital: A Czech-American Dialogue," at the Woodrow Wilson Center, United States Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic, sponsored by the Czech Fulbright Commission, the United States Embassy (Prague), and the Institute of Political Science, Charles University (Prague), May 2006; as the Joe and Paulette Rose Annual Lecture in Politics, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, January, 2007; at the Conference on "Social Capital: Building Bridges Between the Social Sciences," University of Aarhus (Denmark), April, 2007; at the Workshop on Social Capital and Transition to Democracy in Eastern Europe and the Balkans at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece, May 2007; at the National Defense College, the Civil Service College, Khan University/Millennium Foundation, at the Conference on "Democratic Accountability and Ways to Fight Corruption" sponsored by the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, and as the keynote address to the Conference on "Curbing Corruption in South Asia: A Workshop for Parliamentarians" sponsored by GOPAC (the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption) and the National Democratic Institute, all in Dhaka, Bangladesh under the sponsorship of the United States Department of State, July, 2007; and at the International Social Capital and Networks of Trust Congress, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, October, 2007.

Uslaner gave a presentation on corruption and trust at a workshop organized by Professor Lynn Sharp Paine, the John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, at the Wharton School of Business, March 3-4, 2006.  The workshop was sponsored by the Hills Program on Governance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, together with the World Bank, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics at Wharton.   He also presented lectures on “Trust and Economic Growth in the Knowledge Society” at the Socio-Economic Research Institute of the Government Cabinet Office (Tokyo), Government of Japan; at the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development (Tokyo), and at Osaka University (Japan) on March 7-9, 2006.   Uslaner will also speak on “Trends in Legislative Politics and Legislative-Executive Relations” and on “The Lessons of Corruption in Central and Eastern Europe for China” at the Southwest University of Law and Political Science, Chongqing, China, May 24, 2006 and on “The Bulging Pocket and the Rule of Law,” Chinese University of Hong Kong, April 4, 2006.

‘Uslaner has also given talks at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; Australian National University; University of Melbourne (Australia); McGill University (Canada);  Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; the Collegium Budapest Workshop on Honesty and Trust, Budapest, Hungary (click here for pictures); Oxford University; and the University of Antwerp; the University of Haifa; the University of Zurich, Uppsala University (Sweden), Ersta Sköndal University College, Stockholm (Sweden), Goteborg University (Sweden), the University of Antwerp (Belgium), the University of Haifa (Israel), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel),  Sabanci University (Istanbul, Turkey), University of Sofia (Bulgaria), University of California–San Diego, University of Missouri; and the Caux Initiatives for Business Conference for Business and Industry, Caux, Switzerland.

He has also presented papers at the United Nations University WIDER Center in Helsinki, Finland and in 2003. 2004, 2005, and 2006 he has lectured in the G-17 Institute's (now the ESPI) Summer School in Political Economics.  In 2005 he was also a Fulbright Senior Specialist at Novosobirsk State Technical University in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Uslaner has also examined whether the Internet is the "new new thing" in either creating or destroying trust and social ties.  See a summary of his work and download his paper at the web site for the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And he is the proud husband of Debbie and even prouder father of Avery (click here to see them on their whale-watching exhibition in Australia and Avery's favorite pasttime).