Democracy faces one of its most serious crises in decades. Fundamental principles, such as free and fair elections, freedom of the press, and the rule of law, are under threat due to the rise of populist and polarizing leadership, economic and social instability, and pervasive corruption.
This event will raise awareness among policymakers and the public about the ongoing crisis in democracy and corruption, offering evidence-based insights relevant to Scotland and its diverse regions.
Join us and representatives from the University of Aberdeen for this in-person session exploring policy solutions that promote good governance principles and foster an open dialogue of ideas between policymakers, civil society representatives, researchers, and experts in Scotland.
Speakers
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Daniel Bruce
Chief ExecutiveDaniel joined Transparency International UK as Chief Executive in 2019. Under his leadership, TI-UK has helped to secure significant legislative reform to close down loopholes allowing dirty money, the proceeds of corruption, into the UK economy. He has overseen our forensic investigations of corruption in Covid-19 procurement, formally feeding into the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry. Daniel has served as an expert witness to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, along with committees in both Houses of Parliament, as part of our work to increase integrity in politics. He is a regular media commentator on standards in government, political financing and global corruption.
Before joining TI-UK, Daniel served for nearly 6 years as the Chief Executive of the global media support organisation, Internews and has worked on transparency, governance and media initiatives across three continents for Article 19, Albany Associates, Fondation Hirondelle, UNESCO, the University of Pennsylvania and others. He spent his early career as a journalist, editor and broadcaster.
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Juliet Swann
Nations and Regions Programme ManagerJuliet (she/her) is based in Edinburgh and leads our work in Scotland. She also monitors Wales and Northern Ireland to identify opportunities for TI-UK in those countries. She is Chair of the Open Government Partnership Scotland Civil Society Steering Group, working collaboratively with government on transparency of and public participation in decision making.
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Dr Digdem Soyaltin-Colella
University of AberdeenDigdem Soyaltin Colella is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen, UK. She is also a member of the global strategy reference group of Transparency International Berlin. Her research concentrates on the politics of corruption, mechanisms of state capture and regime survival, autocratic bureaucracies & illiberal governance, and Southeast European and Turkish politics. Her publications appeared in Third World Quarterly, Europe-Asia Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, South European and Black Sea Studies, International Political Science Review, European Politics and Society, Turkish Studies, International Spectator, Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science, and Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. She is the author of EU Good Governance Promotion in the Age of Democratic Decline (ed, Palgrave, 2022) and Europeanisation, Corruption and Good Governance in the Public Sector: The Case of Turkey (Routledge, 2017).
Before joining the University of Aberdeen, she worked as an associate professor in Political Science at Altınbaş University in Istanbul. She was also the academic director of the Jean Monnet Module “EU Good Governance Promotion Inside and Beyond Its Borders" (EUGOGOV) funded by the European Commission (2018-2021) and acted as a board member at Transparency International (TI) Turkey between 2018 and 2022.
She received her Ph.D. degree in Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Stockholm University. She holds MSc. in European Affairs from Lund University and M.Phil in Political Science from Central European University. She contributed to the ANTICORRP (Anticorruption Policies Revisited) project, the Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index of Transparency International UK, and the ICF Brussels Project on Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Council of Europe support to the implementation of the European Convention of Human Rights in Turkey
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Dr Kathrin Thomas
University of AberdeenDr Kathrin Thomas joined the Department of Politics and International Relations in September 2019 as Lecturer in Politics and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in August 2023. Previously, she was Senior Research Specialist in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, working on the Arab Barometer. Kathrin also worked as Research Associate in Survey Methodology in the Department of Sociology at City, University of London; Research Associate on the Austrian National Election Study hosted by the Department of Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Vienna; and Teaching Fellow at Aberdeen.
Kathrin obtained a PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter within the Marie Curie ITN on Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM) in 2013.
Kathrin was Co-chair of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Methodology from 2015--2020 and Board Member of the European Survey Reserach Association from 2019--2021. I taught survey design at the ECPR Methods Schools for several years.
Kathrin's substantive research interests are (comparative) public opinion, electoral politics, participation, and social and political psychology. She also has expertise in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Her methodological interests are in improving data quality for all kinds of research projects, including survey methodology.
Agenda
09:45 Registration
10:00 Welcome and introduction
10:15 Panel discussion
- Corruption and the democracy crisis in the world
- Data from the UK and Scotland
- Challenges in Anti-Corruption in the UK
- Counter-measures – how might we tackle the crisis?
11:30 Q&A
12:00 Networking lunch
13:00 Event close
Partners
