Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies

CCPS Faculty

Fellows

Visiting Scholars

Torben Lütjen 

Torben Lütjen is a research associate at the Institute for German and European Party Law and Party Research at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied political science and public law at the universities of Göttingen (Germany), Caen (France) and at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a PhD from the University of Göttingen. His dissertation, and first book, a biography of Karl Schiller (1966-1972), the former German minister for economics and finance, was located on the interface between political theory and contemporary history as it analyzed the rise and fall of technocratic thinking in 20th century Germany. He also authored a biography of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democratic candidate for chancellor in 2009.

Dr. Lütjen’s research interests include American politics, comparative party politics and the sociology of knowledge. He is currently working on an analysis of ideological conflict in the United States from a comparative perspective. In particular, he is trying to explain why ideological polarization in the US has become intensively sharp, whereas most European party systems are converging on ideological terms, a fact that challenges a number of well- established theories of modernization. Torben Lütjen’s research is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation that supports him with a 5-year grant until 2014 (Schumpeter-Fellowship).

Maik Bohne

Maik Bohne, a PhD candidate at the University of Goettingen, Germany, conducted research at the CCPS from February to September 2007. His PhD thesis focuses on the relevance of party networks (party organizations, political consultants, party-connected interest groups) in the 2006 congressional elections. His qualitative, cross-sectional study would add new perspectives on partisan reality in American elections by reassessing the thesis that US campaigns are predominantly candidate-run.

Qingsi Li 

Qingsi Li was a visiting fellow with the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (CCPS) from August 30, 2004 to August 26, 2005. His research with the Center was on the congressional role in the foreign policy decision-making process. His focus was on the influence of domestic factors over legislators voting behavior toward foreign affairs. He accomplished his research through an interdisciplinary approach that sought to combine comparative studies, empirical studies and observation through daily work with the staff and file reading. During his stay at CCPS, Dr. Li collected materials and observed several lectures to prepare for a theoretical background for his upcoming work as a Congressional Fellow on the Hill from early January until August 15, 2005. He also continued research on the legislative functions and performance in the field of foreign policy decision-making as part of an effort to write a book titled, "The Mechanism of the US Congress and its Impact on Foreign Policy Making." Dr. Li is an associate professor at the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, one of the best Chinese universities for social science, humanity and economic management. He received his doctorate and masters degrees from Renmin University of China in 2000 and 1990 respectively, and his BA from Henan University at Kaifeng in 1988. He spent seven months in the School of International Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury in 1994, participated in the USIA Summer Institute in 1998 and taught three courses on China (Chinese Revolutionary History, The Political Economy of PRC and China in the Modern World) to students in the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver from 1998 to 1999. His teaching and research areas include American studies, specifically, the American political system, American foreign policy (after World War II) and readings of selected articles on world politics and international relations involving China-US relations. He has published a book titled The US Congress and its Influence over US China Policy and approximately 30 articles in journals and newspapers in China. He has extensive academic interests in international affairs particularly in those related to China or the United States.

Robert Matschoss 

Robert Matschoss conducted research on US presidential primaries for his master's thesis at the Universitat Passau in Germany. He is a student of "Sprachen, Wirtschafts-und Kulturraumstudien" (International Business and Cultural Studies) with a focus on Anglo-American culture.  

John E. Owens

John E. Owens is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. He is Professor of United States Government and Politics in the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster where he is Director of CSD's Legislative Governance Project. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Professor Owens is the author of over 35 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals and book chapters as well as the co-author or co-editor of several books on congressional-presidential relations, the US Congress, and comparative legislative politics. His most recent book, America’s “War” on Terrorism: New Dimensions in United States Government and Foreign Policy (coedited with John W. Dumbrell) was published by Lexington in 2008. In 2010, Routledge will publish The "War on Terror" and the Growth of Executive Power? A Comparative Analysis, coedited with Riccardo Pelizzo. In 2009, he also coedited a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies with Riccardo Pelizzo on the impact of the “War on Terror” on executive-legislative relations in seven different political systems.

Previous publications include:

• Congress and the Presidency: Institutional Politics in a Separated System (Manchester University Press), co-authored with Michael Foley;
• Leadership in Context (Rowman & Littlefield), coedited with Erwin C. Hargrove;
• The Republican Takeover of Congress (Palgrave), coedited with Dean McSweeney;
• After Full Employment (Hutchinson University Press), co-authored with John Keane.

He is currently Associate Editor of Politics & Policy, a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Legislative Studies and former member of the board of Presidential Studies Quarterly and, and an executive committee member of the International Political Science Association's Research Committee of Legislative Specialists. From 2005 and 2008, he was also chair of the Political Studies Association's Richard Neustadt Book Prize Committee for the best book on United States presidential politics and, previously, has been chair and vice-chair of the American Politics Group of the UK Political Studies Association.

He has also been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, the Centennial Center of the American Political Science Association, the University of Essex, Texas A&M University, and a visitor to numerous universities throughout the world. He has also received awards from the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation, The Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Center, USIS, and the LBJ Foundation.

Cristian Vaccari 

Cristian Vaccari was a visiting fellow with the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (CCPS) from August 1, 2004 to December 30, 2004. His research with the center focused on campaign strategies, styles, and techniques, in an international perspective and through an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to conjugate insights and methodologies from political science, sociology, and communication science. During his stay at CCPS, he collected data for his graduate dissertation on the 2004 US Presidential elections, while the 2000 US Presidential elections was the subject of his undergraduate dissertation. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Communication at the IULM University in Milan, Italy. In 2002 he graduated summa cum laude in Mass Communications at the University of Bologna, Italy. Between 2000 and 2001, he spent a year as an undergraduate reciprocity student at the University of California at San Diego. His teaching experience includes lectures and seminars on political communication, journalism, public opinion, and civic engagement held at University of Bologna (Department of Mass Communications; Graduate School of Journalism); IULM University – Milan (Institute of Communications); Denver University (International Center for Civic Engagement, Bologna). Cristian Vaccari also served as Communications Assistant and Director of Web Operations for Sergio Cofferati's successful campaign for mayor in Bologna, Italy, in 2003-2004. Out of this experience, he published a book, titled Cofferati anch'io (2004) with Professor Roberto Grandi of the University of Bologna. He is also author of some articles (published in Italy) about political campaigning, the effects of mass communication, candidate credibility, the US 2000 Presidential elections, and the 2004 local and European elections in Italy.