2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Saturday, April 5-8:00 am
Paper
Paper
Disc.
But He Is OUR Crook: Public Trust and Judicial Selection
This paper examines the connection between public trust in the
judiciary and the method by which judges are selected for their
positions.
Geoffrey D. Peterson, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
petersgd@uwec.edu
Dylan Jambrek, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
jambredt@uwec.edu
The Gap Between National and Local Political Trust Across
Cities
This research examines a source of the differences between
the degree of political trust in national government and local
government in the United States.
Miwa Nakajo, Texas A&M University
mnakajo@politics.tamu.edu
Rune Slothuus, Aarhus University
slothuus@ps.au.dk
25-19 PUBLIC OPINION AND MAJOR POLICY ISSUES
Room PDR 9 on the 3rd Floor, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair Donald P. Haider-Markel, University of Kansas
dhmarkel@ku.edu
Paper Grandma vs. the Bum: Do Cues about Beneficiaries Influence
Support for Medicare and Medicaid
We conduct a survey experiment to analyze how cues about these
health care programs and their populations influence the robustness
of support for these programs. In particular, we manipulate the
presentation of "deserving" and "unworthy" recipients.
Jennifer M. Jensen, Binghamton University, SUNY
jjensen@binghamton.edu
Jillian M. Mark, Binghamton University, SUNY
jmark1@binghamton.edu
Paper Policy Initiatives and Party Reputations
This paper shows that the public rewards parties when their leaders
take costly initiatives to solve public policy problems.
Patrick J. Egan, New York University
PATRICK.EGAN@NYU.EDU
Paper Public Opinion, Policy, and Unequal Responsiveness in the
American States
Using public opinion disaggregated by income group and an
updated measure of policy liberalism, I find a sizeable upper class
bias in responsiveness. Unequal political participation, interest
groups, and institutional variation are probed as causes.
Patrick Flavin, University of Notre Dame
pflavin@nd.edu
Disc. Stacey Pelika, College of William & Mary
spelika@wm.edu
Donald P. Haider-Markel, University of Kansas
dhmarkel@ku.edu
26-4 NEW DIRECTIONS IN CONTEXT AND TURNOUT
Room Honore on the Lobby Level, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair David L. Hill, Stetson University
dhill@stetson.edu
Paper The Military Voter
In this paper, we address a range of topics concerning the
participatory behavior of active members of the US military
including: rates of turnout, methods of turnout, potential influence
of turnout, and civilian perception of military turnout.
Rachel M. Sondheimer, United States Military Academy
rachel.sondheimer@gmail.com
Thomas Greco, United States Military Academy
Thomas.Greco@usma.edu
William Bundy, United States Military Academy
william.bundy@usma.edu
James S. Taylor, United States Military Academy
james.taylor@usma.edu
Paper
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Explaining Voter Turnout in Local Direct Democracy: Evidence
from Central and Eastern Europe
Based on original fieldwork, the paper analyzes the determinants
of voter turnout in local direct demcracy in Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic. OLS regressions of turnout by democraphic,
political and referendum-related variables are utilized.
Michael Lee Smith, New School for Social Research
smitm272@newschool.edu
The Effect of Voter Identification Requirements on Voter
Turnout
This project investigates whether "Voter ID laws" recently adopted
in twenty-four states—twenty of which voted Republican in the
2004 Presidential Election—suppress turnout and result in a
significant decrease in Democratic Party vote share.
Brad T. Gomez, Florida State University
bgomez@fsu.edu
The Effects of Election Day Vote Centers and Voter Turnout:
Costs, Convenience, Colorado
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of Election Day
Vote Centers (EDVC) on voter turnout. Our study includes county
data of voter turnout in Colorado elections between 1998 and 2006.
Ngoc Phan, Rice University
ngoc.phan@rice.edu
Danish Moti, Rice University
danish@rice.edu
Leila Bighash, Rice University
leila.bighash@rice.edu
David L. Hill, Stetson University
dhill@stetson.edu
27-15 COVERAGE OF POLITICS IN NON-WESTERN
COUNTRIES
Room Suite 15-250 on the 15th Floor, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair Jody C. Baumgartner, East Carolina University
jodyb@jodyb.net
Paper Benin, West Africa: Home of the Dissident Media
The paper investigates how the dissident print media of Cotonou,
Benin, has helped this West African republic navigate it way from
the French colonization through independence, and ultimately to a
politically charged, multi-party democracy.
Steve Urbanski, West Virginia University
steve.urbanski@mail.wvu.edu
Paper TV and Political Persuasion in Young Democracies: Evidence
from Russia
We use geographic availability of NTV, a Russian independent TV
channel, as an instrument for media exposure, thus identifying its
effect on voting behavior in 1999 elections. We find substantially
large and significant media effects.
Ruben Enikolopov, Harvard University
enikolop@fas.harvard.edu
Maria Petrova, Harvard University
mpetrova@fas.harvard.edu
Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, New Economic School
EZhuravskaya@cefir.ru
Paper Covering a Non-Democracy: A Japanese Case and Implication
for Media Balancing
This paper chooses Japan's top two largest newspapers and examine
their coverage patterns of China. It seeks to offer a contextualized
and nuanced picture of how reporters from a democracy deal with
and are dealt with by an authoritarian government.
Jing Sun, University of Denver
Jing.Sun@du.edu
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