Our next guest of speaker series of Institute for Political Science is Sean Theriault (The University of Texas at Austin, College of Liberal Arts) with the presentation entitled:

The Policy Agendas of a Global Power: The Case of the Holy See

Does leadership change in an organization change its priorities? In this paper, we examine this simple questions within the context of the Holy See. First, we argue that the Holy See is a Global Power – perhaps even the Global Power.  Second, we measure the public policy priorities under the papacies of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. We find that agendas of the pontiff change year to year, though those changes are marginal compared to the changes from pontiff to pontiff.