2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-12:45 pm
26-12 CHOICE PERSPECTIVES ON PARTICIPATION
Room UEH 404 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Chair Scott Nicholson, Stanford University
swn@stanford.edu
Paper An Experimental Approach to Studying the Effect of the Party
System on Voter Turnout
This paper seeks to identify how three components of the party
system—number of parties, proximity of the closest party, or
parties, to the voter’s ideal point, and relative distance between the
parties—affect voter turnout.
James Melton, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
melton@uiuc.edu
Paper The Right Tool for the Job: Political Choice in Political
Behavior
This paper analyzes political choice by presenting an innovative
toolbox theory of political action. This theory offers a new
understanding of how individuals strategically select among
political actions to achieve their preferred policy outcomes.
Daniel Gillion, University of Rochester
dgillion@mail.rochester.edu
Fredrick Harris, Columbia University
fh2170@columbia.edu
Paper Choice Context and Decision-Making: An Application to Voter
Fatigue
We empirically document the contextual effects of ballot position on
voter choice. In particular, for a given race, we find that voters who
observe the race relatively further down the ballot are more likely to
undervote and vote `no'.
Scott Nicholson, Stanford University
swn@stanford.edu
Paper Testing the Habitual Voter Hypothesis: A Two-Stage Maximum
Likelihood Model
On Election Day, voters face a big decision. Or is it two Using
simultaneous multinomial logit and two-stage nested multinomial
logit models, this paper asks whether non-habitual voters decide
separately whether to vote and for whom to vote.
L. Matthew Vandenbroek, University of Texas, Austin
lmvandenbroek@gov.utexas.edu
Disc. Scott Nicholson, Stanford University
swn@stanford.edu
28-13 WOMEN'S SUBSTANTIVE REPRESENTATION:
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Room UEH 410 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Chair Susan Franceschet, University of Calgary
sfrances@ucalgary.ca
Paper (Re)presenting Women: Retooling Women’s Substantive
Representation
The conceptual task of defining women's interests continues to vex
scholars. My mechanism for women's substantive representation
recognizes different contexts but privileges none; I show its
usefulness with a case study from German politics.
Christina V. Xydias, Ohio State University
xydias.1@osu.edu
Paper Gender: A Constituent Notion in Public Power and Political
Representation
This research studies gender as a constituent notion in public power.
It introduces a case study of the model of feminine inclusion into
the formal political system in Argentina and of the legislative work
of the first national congresswomen.
Maria Fernanda Heyaca, New School for Social Research
mfheyaca@yahoo.co.uk
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Do Congresswomen have a Gendered Perspective on Non-
Women’s Issues
In order to better understand how the representation of women in
Congress affects policy making, this paper analyzes the effect of
gender on Congressional roll call votes on issues that cannot be
considered an area of special interest for women.
Alana Renee Querze, University of Kansas
arq@ku.edu
Quasi-Experimental Design and Representing Women’s
Interests: Re-examining Multivariate Statistical Verdicts
Using a quasi-experiment to control for constituency influences on
members’ behavior, we assess whether the gender of members of
Congress affects the level of substantive representation that they
provide for women’s interests.
Jason A. MacDonald, Kent State University
jmacdon1@kent.edu
Erin O'Brien, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Erin.Obrien@umb.edu
Susan J. Carroll, Rutgers University
scarroll@rci.rutgers.edu
Susan Franceschet, University of Calgary
sfrances@ucalgary.ca
29-7 CLASS
Room Suite 11-250 on the 11th Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Chair Joel Lieske, Cleveland State University
j.lieske@csuohio.edu
Paper The Negative Impact of Racial Polarization on Poverty, and
How To Overcome It
I discuss different perspectives on why America has the highest
poverty rate of any industrialized country. My hypothesis is racial
polarization is the most salient reason why we fail to address
poverty. I conclude by offering solutions.
Anand Shastri, University of Illinois, Chicago
ashast2@uic.edu
Paper A New Perspective on Strategic Advantage: Does the Active
Component of the United States Army Serve as a Mechanism to
Promote Social Mobility
The present study examines the association between service in the
active component of the post-Korean War U. S. Army and the social
mobility of low-income individuals, particularly individuals from
racial and ethnic minorities, and their offspring.
Janice Omega Avant-McKinney, Indiana University, Bloomington
javantmc@indiana.edu
Paper Social Inequality and Tort Reform: A Critique of Legal
Consciousness
This paper argues that legal consciousness, an idea touted as having
the potential to help the disadvantaged, has been co-opted by
conservative legal reformers and no longer offers the transformative
benefits it is claimed to posses.
Daniel Tagliarina, University of Connecticut
daniel.tagliarina@uconn.edu
Disc. Joel Lieske, Cleveland State University
j.lieske@csuohio.edu
30-301 POSTER SESSION: ANCIENT POLITICAL THEORY
Room Grand on the 4th Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Poster 1 Cicero's Immortal State
This paper explores Cicero's conception of the ideal state as
immortal. It begins with a systematic analysis of the Latin terms for
state, then uses the fruits of this analysis to investigate immortality
for Cicero with respect to the state and man.
Richard W. Maass, University of Notre Dame
rmaass@gmail.com
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