2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Thursday, April 3-10:00 am
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Burkean Representation: Explaining the Speed of Policy
Adjustment
Aspects of institutions and policy domains interact to explain an
important aspect of policy change, the speed at which policies
approach goals set by the legislature, providing insight into the
elusive nature of Burkean interest representation.
Brandon C. Zicha, Binghamton University
bzicha1@binghamton.edu
Policy-Making and Radical Right Political Parties: Do they
Shape Minimum Income Supports
The emergence or re-emergence of radical right political parties
in Europe has been met with some disquiet. What is the real effect
of these parties on policy making as they participate in regional
government
Marcella Myers, Western Michigan University
marcellajmyers@aol.com
Nicole Richardt, University of Utah
nicole.richardt@poli-sci.utah.edu
Francesco Stolfi, University College, Dublin
francesco.stolfi@ucd.ie
3-2 REFORMING A STRONG STATE: MEXICO'S
REFORM PROJECTS IN COMPARATIVE
PERSPECTIVE
Room UEH 409 on the 4th Floor, Thur at 10:00 am
Chair Mariela Szwarcberg, University of Chicago
marielas@uchicago.edu
Paper Judging, Lobbying and Litigating: Activist Strategies for
Judicial Change in the Brazilian and Mexican States
Building on existing comparative research on competitiveness
and institutional change, this paper studies judicial reform in
Mexico and Brazil and offers an in-depth examination of causal
mechanisms.
Matthew C. Ingram, Univeristy of New Mexico
mingram@unm.edu
Paper Labor Rights Enforcement in the North American Free Trade
Agreement
The paper investigates the impact of trade-based social clauses on
labor rights enforcement through quantitative analysis of NAFTA's
labor side agreement. It analyzes how pressure for reform from
outside the state can be used as leverage.
Kimberly A. Nolan Garcia, University of New Mexico
knolan@unm.edu
Paper Electoral Rules for Global Nations Corporatist and Pluralist
Responses on Overseas
This paper builds on prior research on overseas voting including
quantitative and Mexico field work. It will test an institutional
argument on two case studies including either India, Brazil, or Costa
Rica, and Phillipines, Spain, U.S. or France.
Matthew Lieber, Brown University
matthew_lieber@brown.edu
Paper How Far Can You Stray From the Editorial Fold Ideological
Position Taking in Venezuela’s Media Market
This paper evaluates the degree to which newspaper editorial line
is enforced and, more importantly, what mechanisms foster or
hinder tighter ideological alignments within different Venezuelan
newspapers.
Iñaki Sagarzazu, University of Houston
isagarzazu@uh.edu
Disc. Jeffrey Staton, Florida State University
jstaton@fsu.edu
3-18 AUTHORITARIANISM IN THE DEMOCRATIC AGE
Room Suite 12-150 on the 12th Floor, Thur at 10:00 am
Chair Yi Zhao, Grand Valley State University
zhaoy@gvsu.edu
Paper Political Legitimacy in Military Authoritarianism : Evidence
from Pakistan and Thailand
Drawing on evidence from Pakistan and Thailand, this paper seeks
to understand why some military authoritarian regimes are more
durable than others.
Bushra Asif, University of Chicago
basif@uchicago.edu
Diana Young-hwa Kim, University of Chicago
yhkim11@uchicago.edu
Paper We Would Not Choose These Terms: Development Discourses in
Mongolia
This case study of development discourse among Mongolian
elites identifies how stakeholders discursively interact to contest
development priorities.
Sarah Combellick-Bidney, Indiana University
scombell@indiana.edu
Paper Cities and Stability: Urbanization and Non-Democratic Regime
Survival
Although urbanization and development are correlated, their effects
on autocratic regime survival point in opposite directions. I argue
that development abets non-democratic regimes, while urbanization
undermines them.
Jeremy L. Wallace, Stanford University
wallace.jeremy@gmail.com
Paper The Ghost of War and Liberia’s Search for Democracy
The paper will survey the political developments in Liberia leading
to the Civil War and the demise of the nation-state. It critically
examines the challenges facing the government of in unifying
Liberia and building viable democratic institutions.
George A. Agbango, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
gagbango@bloomu.edu
Disc. Dene McArthur, Binghamton University
dmcarthu@binghamton.edu
4-2 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF
DEMOCRATIZATION
Room Salon 2 on the 3rd Floor, Thur at 10:00 am
Chair Jay Ulfelder, Science Applications International Corporation
jay_ulfelder@stanfordalumni.org
Paper How Democracies Fail: A Competing Risks Approach
Democracies can fail in different ways, and those different ways
may have distinct causes. This paper develops a formal model of
democracy and then uses multinomial logistic regression to test
some of that model's implications.
Jay Ulfelder, Science Applications International Corporation
jay_ulfelder@stanfordalumni.org
Paper When and Why Do Democracies Consolidate Age and the
Survival of Democracy
This paper uses a new statistical model--a change-point survival
model--to examine the proposition that after reaching a certain age,
democracies consolidate and their risk of a breakdown is close to
zero.
Milan Svolik, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
msvolik@uiuc.edu
Paper Mission Impossible Democracy Building in Post-Civil War
Societies
Employing an event history analysis of 75 post-civil war countries
in 1946-2002, I investigate what causes the success or failure of
transitioning to and sustaining democracy after civil war.
Jai Kwan Jung, Cornell University
jkj3@cornell.edu
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