Abstracts:
Prof. William T. Bianco of Indiana University and Prof. Itai Sened of Tel Aviv University will present two updated, research-based analyses of the crises that two of the most illustrious democracies in the West—the United States and Israel—are struggling through, using a unique analytical framework they developed together two decades ago and have used ever since to explain much of the dynamism in Western democracies.

Bio:
William T. Bianco is a Professor of Political Science at Indiana University and director of the Indiana Political Analytics Workshop. He holds a PhD from the University of Rochester and has held tenured positions at Indiana University, Penn State, and Duke, with visiting roles at Harvard, Stanford, and The Brookings Institution. His research focuses on American politics, representation, and scientific research policy. He is the author of Trust: Representatives and Constituents and has received funding from NSF, NEES, and the Russell Sage Foundation. Bianco was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Moscow (2011–2012) and a Visiting Professor in Abu Dhabi (2018–2019).

Itai Sened is Professor at Large, Emeritus, at Tel Aviv University. He earned his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1991 and has held tenured positions at Tel Aviv University and Washington University in St. Louis, where he directed the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences and served as department chair. He has also served as Chair of Tel Aviv’s Department of Public Policy, head of the School of Social and Policy Studies, and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Sened directs four research centers and has published works including Political Institutions of Private Property (Cambridge) and Political Bargaining (Sage). His research appears in leading political science journals, and he has co-edited or authored several books. His upcoming book on European democracies is scheduled for 2026, and he has been the Israeli representative to IIASA since 2022, serving on its executive committee since 2023.

Moderator:
Professor Kwan Nok CHAN
Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration
Assistant Dean (Undergraduate Education), Faculty of Social Sciences