2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-12:45 pm
40-21 IDEAL POINT ESTIMATION AND LEGISLATIVE
REALITY II
Room PDR 5 on the 3rd Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Chair James Coleman Battista, University of Buffalo, SUNY
jbattist@buffalo.edu
Paper Strategic Choices of Roll Call Requests
This paper develops a simple game model to derive several
hypotheses about when a roll call vote is requested. We test the
hypotheses with data on roll call and teller votes in the Taiwanese
Legislative Yuan.
Fang-Yi Chiou, Academia Sinica
fchiou7@gmail.com
Wanying Yang, National Cheng Chi University
fchiou7@gmail.com
Paper Re-examining Bridge Actors in Creating Common Space Ideal
Points
Bridge actors are useful in scaling ideal points into common
space across legislative chambers and beyond. Yet we do not well
understand the requirements for successful bridging to take place.
This paper addresses this big gap in the literature.
Boris Shor, University of Chicago
bshor@uchicago.edu
Christopher R. Berry, University of Chicago
crberry@uchicago.edu
Paper Assessing our Assessments of the One-Dimensional Congress
The predominant assumption in the literature is that Congress is
one-dimensional. We conduct Monte Carlo simulations to assess
how accurately ideal point estimation techniques recover (1) ideal
points on the second dimension, and (2) dimensionality.
Edward Stiglitz, Stanford University
jeds@stanford.edu
Barry Weingast, Stanford University
weingast@stanford.edu
Paper Partisan Influence in Congress and Institutional Change
We test for the influence of party on congressional voting with an
alternative to NOMINATE. We demonstrate the veracity of the
procedure with Monte Carlo simulations and through empirical tests
of key events in congressional history.
Michael Tofias, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
tofias@uwm.edu
Scott de Marchi, Duke University
demarchi@duke.edu
Paper Dimensional Collapse in Legislative Voting: Unearthing a
Methods Artifact
Probabilistic spatial voting simulations show how multidimensional
legislative voting appears one-dimensional if parties are polarized
and the majority pulls bill content in its favor. Thus, dimensional
analysis may obscure true preference structure.
Nathan P. Kalmoe, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
kalmoe@umich.edu
Paper Viva Voce: Implications from the Disappearing Voice Vote
In this article, we argue the composition of the early roll call voting
record make it a less reliable tool for legislative scholars. However,
researchers can mitigate potential biases by controlling for factors
that led to recorded roll call votes.
Michael S. Lynch, University of Kansas
mlynch@ku.edu
Anthony J. Madonna, Washington University in St. Louis
ajmadonn@wustl.edu
Disc. James Coleman Battista, University of Buffalo, SUNY
jbattist@buffalo.edu
Alexander Victor Hirsch, Stanford University
ahirsch@stanford.edu
Joseph M. Gardner, Northern Arizona University
joseph.gardner@nau.edu
41-4 ROLE OF PARTIES IN LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS
Room Wabash on the 3rd Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Chair David J. Hadley, Wabash College
hadleyd@wabash.edu
Paper Paying for the Party’s Campaign Fundraising Expectations in
the U.S. House
House incumbents are increasingly expected to redsitribute
campaign funds to the party congressional campaign committees
(CCCs). We evaluate whether House members have financed this
activity by raising more money or by cutting into their war chests.
Eric Scott Heberlig, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
esheberl@email.uncc.edu
Bruce A. Larson, Gettysburg College
blarson@gettysburg.edu
Paper Taking Back What’s Yours: Party Success in Winning Back
House Seats Lost in the Last Election
Using data from 1972 to 2004, this paper analyzes the success that
the political parties have had in taking back House seats that they
lost in the previous election and the factors that affect such success.
Jon R. Bond, Texas A&M University
JONBOND@politics.tamu.edu
Richard Fleisher, Fordham University
fleisher@fordham.edu
Paper Friends in High Places: A Social Network Analysis of
Congressional Leadership PACs
How has the use of party leadership PACs in the House and Senate
changed in recent years Social network analysis (SNA) is used to
derive maps of contributions between members of Congress and
develop measures of the changing usage of these bodies.
Andrea McAtee, University of South Carolina
mcateea@gwm.sc.edu
Kimberly A. Fredericks, Indiana State University
kfredericks@isugw.indstate.edu
Paper The Impact of Party Cues and Information on Public
Evaluations of Congress
This paper uses a survey experiment to assess the effect of party
cues on the evaluation of Congress.
Sarah Binder, George Washington University
binder@gwu.edu
Eric D. Lawrence, George Washington University
edl@gwu.edu
Forrest Maltzman, George Washington University
forrest@gwu.edu
Disc. Brian F. Schaffner, American University
schaffne@american.edu
42-23 UNPACKING COURT DYNAMICS
Room Salon 9 on the 3rd Floor, Fri at 12:45 pm
Chair Teena Wilhelm, University of Georgia
twilhelm@uga.edu
Paper Looking at a State High Court Judge's Work
Examination of work of judge of supreme court in state without
intermediate appellate court in 1960s: voting patterns, treatment of
lower courts; time to decision.
Stephen L. Wasby, University at Albany
wasb@albany.edu
Paper Operationalizing Judicial Activism
The purpose of this paper is to attempt operationalization of the
concept of judicial activism though an empirical model designed
to measure the degree to which judges or courts have activism
tendencies.
John C. Domino, Sam Houston State University
pol_jcd@shsu.edu
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