Asia - Pacific

Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance

Australian National University

Deliberative democracy is one of the major growth areas in contemporary political theory and social science, and ANU claims what is possibly the world’s largest concentration of deliberative democracy scholars. Many of the world’s leading deliberative democrats have spent time with us. The ‘Global Governance’ in our title emphasizes research directions that encompass transnational democracy and democratization, though research on democratic theory, local and national deliberation, and the micropolitics of deliberative forums also flourishes.

Website: http://deliberativedemocracy.anu.edu.au/

Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (IPSAS)

In July 1994, the Council of Academicians advised Academia Sinica to establish research institutions corresponding to established social sciences. In October 1999, a planning commission for the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS) was set up, followed by an academic consultative group. The consultative group came up with a formal proposal that was ratified by the Academy and later approved by the Presidential Office in March 2001. The Preparation Office of the IPSAS was founded in August. Professor Yu-Shan Wu is the Director. The IPSAS’s Academic Consultative Committee is chaired by Academician Hu Fu.

Website: http://www.ipsas.sinica.edu.tw/indexe.php

The Third World Studies Center (TWSC)

The Third World Studies Center (TWSC) of the University of the Philippines is an academic research institute based at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), committed to analyze and develop alternative perspectives on Philippine, regional and global issues.

The TWSC evolved from an interdisciplinary colloquium of faculty members from different disciplines, brought together by shared perspectives sensitive to realities in the Third World. In 1977, the TWSC began to operate as a program affiliated with the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The program started out with a small resource collection, a research team, a production unit for supplementary instructional materials, and a physical center for alternative discourse. On 29 March 1979, the TWSC was lodged as a unit in the CSSP. In 1999, the College Assembly endorsed the formal recognition of the Third World Studies Program as a full-fledged research center of the college. This was officially approved by the Board of Regents in 2000. Since its establishment, the Center has committed itself to the pursuit of intellectual competence in political economy, democracy and development, and to the promotion of progressive policy alternatives.

Website: http://www.upd.edu.ph/~twsc/index.html