2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-2:45 pm
35-9 REPRESENTATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Room UEH 401 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 2:45 pm
Chair Stuart V. Jordan, University of Rochester
sjordan@mail.rochester.edu
Paper Sanctioning and Selecting in Elections
We show that voters can simultaneously sanction poor behavior and
select for good types in models of electoral accountability, contrary
to the conventional wisdom.
Scott Ashworth, Princeton University
sashwort@princeton.edu
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, University of Chicago
bdm@uchicago.edu
Amanda Friedenberg, Washington University, St. Louis
friedenberg@wustl.edu
Paper A Theory of Representative Institutions
We explore the possibility of representation in institutions with
strategic bargaining. Additionally we explore the normative
implications of many legislative institutions, with a focus on the
Burkean dilemma.
Elizabeth Maggie Penn, Harvard University
epenn@latte.harvard.edu
Sean Gailmard, University of California, Berkeley
gailmard@berkeley.edu
John Wiggs Patty, Harvard University
jwpatty@gmail.com
Paper Delegates or Trustees A Theory of Political Accontability
Explores conditions under which elections encourage lawmakers
to adopt a trustee model of representation as opposed to a delegate
model of representation.
Justin Fox, Yale University
justin.fox@yale.edu
Paper Executive Performance Under Direct and Hierarchical
Accountability
Two basic mechanisms of executive control are compared in terms
of their effectiveness in promoting executive accountability to an
uninformed community: popular election (direct) and appointment
by a popularly elected legislature (hierarchical).
Razvan Vlaicu, University of Maryland
vlaicu@econ.umd.edu
Disc. Stuart V. Jordan, University of Rochester
sjordan@mail.rochester.edu
Po-Han Fung, Northwestern University
p-fong at kellogg.northwestern.edu
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Charlton Heston's Cold Dead Hands and Violent Crime in the
United States: Using Counterfactual Evidence from Canada
Charlton Heston's Cold Dead Hands and Violent Crime in the
United States: Using Counterfactual Evidence from Canada.
Karen Long Jusko, Stanford University
kljusko@stanford.edu
Identity and War Outcomes: A Matched Analysis of Military
Effectiveness in Modern War
This paper examines the impact of identity type on military
effectiveness using matched sampling of war participants
(1800-2005).
Jason Lyall, Princeton University
jlyall@princeton.edu
Thad Dunning, Yale University
thad.dunning@yale.edu
36-8 BOOLEAN, LEARNING, AND RANDOM FOREST
MODELS
Room Suite 11-150 on the 11th Floor, Fri at 2:45 pm
Chair Paul Johnson, University of Kansas
pauljohn@ku.edu
Paper Legislative Activity and the Personal Vote in Britain, 1997--2005
We investigate the relationship between roll call voting by British
members of parliament and their electoral performance. We
introduce Breiman's 'random forests' machine-learning algorithm to
do so.
Arthur Spirling, University of Rochester
spln@mail.rochester.edu
Paper Complex Causality of TANF Expenditures
This paper explores variation in TANF expenditures within the
United States between 2000-2003. Using logic regression, a
machine learning methodology, a series of models composed of
robust “Boolean regressors” are found.
Marc Thomas Ratkovic, University of Wisconsin, Madison
ratkovic@wisc.edu
Paper A Model of Policy Innovation: Explaining Historical Cases of
Innovation in Military Doctrine
I propose a two-level model of government policy innovation
and demonstrate its plausibility by explaining historical cases of
innovation in military doctrine.
Wayne Allen Thornton, Harvard University
thornton@fas.harvard.edu
Disc. Will Lowe, University of Nottingham
will.lowe@nottingham.ac.uk
36-2 CAUSAL INFERENCE IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS
AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Room UEH 410 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 2:45 pm
38-8 MODELING PARTIES
Chair Thad Dunning, Yale University
Room Suite 10-150 on the 10th Floor, Fri at 2:45 pm
thad.dunning@yale.edu
Chair Richard Almeida, Francis Marion University
Paper Corruption and Political Decay: A Causal Analysis Based on the
ralmeida@fmarion.edu
Bolivian Case
Paper
Utilizing propensity score methods for multi-valued treatment
variables and individual-level survey data from Bolivia, this paper
studies the impact of the level and type of corruption victimization
on participation in anti-government protest.
Daniel W. Gingerich, University of Virginia
dwg4c@virginia.edu
hcn4@georgetown.edu
Paper Introducing Randomization to International Election
Observation: The 2004 Presidential Elections in Indonesia
Paper
This paper examines the impact of electoral monitoring using a field
experiment in Indonesia in which observers were randomly assigned
to poll stations. Evidence suggests that these observers had small
but measurable effects on voting behavior.
Susan D. Hyde, Yale University
susan.hyde@yale.edu
Interpreting Ideal Point Estimates with Help From the
Ideological Discourse
This paper leverages an original dataset of pundit opinion to address
the meaning of ideological dimensions in Congress. What is
generally viewed as a multidimensional issue space is perhaps better
seen as a unidimensional space perturbed by parties.
Hans Noel, Georgetown University
Partisanship, Interest Groups, and Inflation in Advanced
Democracies
In this paper, I examine why left-wing governments do not
experience high levels of inflation as predicted by partisan models.
Julia Hyeyong Kim, University of California, Los Angeles
juliakim@ucla.edu
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