2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Saturday, April 5-10:00 am
Disc.
Danielle Langfield, Ohio State University
langfield.1@osu.edu
Jose A. Aleman, Fordham University
aleman@fordham.edu
5-13 CORRUPTION
Room Suite 9-150 on the 9th Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Shawn H. Williams, University of Texas, Dallas
shw061000@utd.edu
Paper Escaping the Resource Curse Lessons from Appalachian Coal
Counties
This paper examines which Appalachian counties have successfully
minimized coal-revenue based corruption through the qualitative
comparison of counties that deviate significantly from statistical
predictions based on their resource endowments.
Kristen A. Harkness, Princeton University
kharknes@princeton.edu
Paper Institutional Approach to Political Corruption
This study provides empirical assessment of the source of
corruption by using panel data of 11 East Asian economies. I also
review the anti-corruption strategies in Hong Kong and Singapore to
explain the anomalous features of these two economies.
Jia Han, Chinese University of Hong Kong
hjsue@cuhk.edu.hk
Paper The Market for Votes in Victorian Britain
Primary data on the prices of bribes and overall campaign costs
show that the decline in electoral corruption in Victorian Britain was
independent of franchise expansion; earlier changes in the rules on
election petitions were the critical factors.
Christopher J. Kam, University of British Columbia
ckam@interchange.ubc.ca
Paper Oil and Institutional Change: Is There a Resource Curse
This paper questions the use of resource exports over GDP as an
indicator of natural resource abundance. Using a new dataset on
petroleum production from 1918-2000 we find no evidence for the
impact of oil production on the quality of institutions.
Brambor Thomas, Stanford University
tbrambor@stanford.edu
Disc. Shawn H. Williams, University of Texas, Dallas
shw061000@utd.edu
5-16 COALITION POLITICS
Room Salon 6 on the 3rd Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Shane Martin, Dublin City University
shane.martin@dcu.ie
Paper Making and Breaking Coalitions in Latin American Presidential
Regimes
This paper explores the determinants of coalition duration in
presidential countries. I use data on the composition of Latin
American governments to test the connection between coalition
breakdowns and wider aspects of the political system.
Cecilia Martinez-Gallardo, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill
cmg@email.unc.edu
Paper Political Parties and Coalition Building in Presidential
Democracies
We focus on the positional and institutional forces that influence
coalition formation in presidential systems. We test our arguments
with data from 13 presidential countries in the Americas.
Aleman Eduardo, University of Houston
ealeman2@uh.edu
Tsebelis George, University of Michigan
tsebelis@umich.edu
Paper
Disc.
Legislative Process, Party System and Coalition Government
Formation
This paper examines variation in government formation across
parliamentary democracies by focusing on the effect legislative
procedural rules have on party system formation and coalition
government formation.
Sang-Jung Han, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
hansj@umich.edu
Shane Martin, Dublin City University
shane.martin@dcu.ie
6-9 VOTERS AND INSTITUTIONS (Co-sponsored with
Comparative Politics: Industrialized Countries, see 2-14)
Room Salon 3 on the 3rd Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Wouter van der Brug, University of Amsterdam
W.vanderbrug@uva.nl
Paper Effect of Political Institutions/Electoral Systems on Correct
Voting: A Comparison Across 32 Democracies
This paper exams levels of correct voting -- i.e., voting in accord
with one's own preferences and values -- across 32 established and
emerging democracies.
Richard R. Lau, Rutgers University
ricklau@rci.rutgers.edu
Parina Patel, Rutgers University
parina@eden.rutgers.edu
Dalia F. Fahmy, Rutgers University
daliaf@eden.rutgers.edu
Robert Kaufman, Rutgers University
kaufrutger@aol.com
Paper
Paper
Paper
Disc.
The Impact of Institutions on Political Knowledge
Using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems the paper
examines the impact of governmental and political institutions on
citizens’ levels of political information.
David L. Hill, Stetson University
dhill@stetson.edu
Electoral Institutions and Voter Choice
What are the conditions under which voters are confronted with
meaningful choices In this paper, we focus on a hitherto ignored
aspect of voter choice: Do voters have the ability to vote for a party
that is ideologically close to them
Matt Golder, Florida State University
mgolder@fsu.edu
Jun Koga, Florida State University
jk06e@fsu.edu
Balancing or Signaling Electoral Punishment in Sub-National
Elections
Parties governing at the federal level often suffer in state elections.
This paper argues that voters signal dissatisfaction with federal
parties and develops a statistical model to compare signaling and
balancing theories of electoral punishment.
Michael Kellermann, Harvard University
kellerm@fas.harvard.edu
Wouter van der Brug, University of Amsterdam
W.vanderbrug@uva.nl
Orit Kedar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
okedar@mit.edu
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