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Kellogg Institute for International Relations

Research agenda at Kellogg

Democracy, however, is but one concern — albeit an important one — of the interdisciplinary research institute established in 1982 by Notre Dame’s President Emeritus Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC.

Under its current director Scott Mainwaring and associate director Christopher Welna, the institute has focused its attention on five key questions that play out across the globe: What are the prospects for democracy around the world? What are the opportunities for economic growth in developing countries? How can policies promote social justice? How does religion shape public life? And, finally, what fosters a vigorous civil society? .

Some three dozen Notre Dame faculty members from 10 academic departments work as Kellogg fellows on aspects of these and related questions. In addition, seven to 10 visiting fellows and scholars each year are invited to work at the institute. Past fellows have included the former president of Chile, Patricio Aylwin, Archbishop emeritus Marcos McGrath, CSC, of Panama, as well as such renowned scholars as Archie Brown of Oxford University and Juan Carlos Moren of Harvard.

From Day One, the Kellogg has been a magnet for world-class scholars. Guillermo O’Donnell, widely regarded as Latin America’s most distinguished political scientist, was personally recruited by Father Hesburgh to serve with former Stonehill College President Father Ernest J. Bartell, CSC, as the institute’s first co-directors, a position the two scholars held for the institute’s first 15 years. Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley also joined the fledgling institute in 1982, later becoming Chile’s first finance minister in the democracy following the Pinochet dictatorship.

The institute continues to be a faculty magnet. Within the last year, Kellogg has drawn five highly regarded scholars to Notre Dame. They include Associate Director Christopher Welna, a former Ford Foundation official in Brazil who holds a Ph.D. from Duke; Ashutosh Barshney, a political scientist who studies conflict in democracy; sociologist Biba Pingle, an expert on development; and political scientists Frances Hagopian, an authority on Brazilian politics, and Anthony Messina, whose expertise is in Western European politics.

In a field dominated by number-crunching theorists, the Kellogg Institute has made its name by fostering an in-depth, descriptive case study approach to social science. Kellogg’s niche is "to put a human face on theory," says Associate Provost Rev. Timothy J. Scully, CSC, himself a Kellogg Fellow and authority on Chilean partisan politics. "In a sense it fits with Notre Dame’s Catholic character," he says. "We like to roll up our sleeves and get into the incarnate reality of things."

Kellogg delves into that incarnate reality by organizing more than 50 academic and cultural events per year, including twice weekly lectures and usually one or two major academic conferences. This year three are planned: a conference on the politics of India and the contributions of noted MIT political scientist Byron Wiener; another examining the problems of democracies in countries divided along ethnic, religious and cultural lines; and finally a conference that examines the quality of democracy and human rights in Colombia.

New knowledge is the point of all the effort. To foster that, the institute, which is underwritten by a $40 million endowment from the Helen C. Kellogg foundation, offers faculty and graduate students seed money to launch new areas of inquiry as well as travel money and dissertation year fellowships. Kellogg extends its influence beyond campus by publishing 20 working papers annually which are distributed to 130 leading research centers, and since1985 has published a book series through the Notre Dame Press exploring the institute’s five central themes.

Mainwaring is particularly proud of the Kellogg’s summer research program for undergraduates. This past summer the institute underwrote projects that took students to Bolivia, Uganda and Japan. "This can be an especially transformative experience," says Mainwaring, who himself conducted research in Argentina as an undergraduate. Last year Clare Rubando ’98 wrote a prize-winning essay based on her summer research on Christian base communities in Bolivia; she is now engaged in service work in Ecuador.

The institute casts a long shadow beyond campus. Father Bartell’s initial strategy of concentrating mainly on Latin America rapidly made the institute a bigtime player, influencing debate not only in academic circles but also impacting public policy. O’Donnell, for instance, is one of the most oft-cited political scientists writing about democracy. His work on authoritarian and democratic regimes in Latin America has been translated into Russian, Korean, Chinese, Polish and Hungarian.

Meanwhile, a quick look at some of the people who have been associated with the Kellogg Institute suggests its impact on public policy. They have included the president of Brazil, who is on its advisory board, the current minister of culture of Brazil, a member of Congress in Paraguay, and Chile’s minister of labor as well as other government officials and leaders of non-governmental humanitarian organizations.

"Notre Dame truly has worldwide impact through the Kellogg," Mainwaring says. The goal now is to deepen it further.

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