2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Saturday, April 5-10:00 am
Paper
Disc.
Misplaced Nationalism: A Study of Cyprus
Cypriots continue to cling to their Greek and Turkish identities
despite the fact that it almost resulted in the sacrifice of Cypriot
sovereignty. This study looks at the concept of nationalism
regarding the longevity of the Cyprus problem.
Alexandria J. Innes, Marquette University
alexandria.innes@mu.edu
Nadav Shelef, University of Wisconsin, Madison
shelef@wisc.edu
21-9 EMOTIONAL AND PARTISAN AMBIVALENCE
Room Suite 15-250 on the 15th Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair David Doherty, University of Colorado, Boulder
dohertyd@colorado.edu
Paper Emotional Ambivalence: Causes and Consequences for Political
Behavior
This paper examines emotional ambivalence by comparing it to
other forms of ambivalence, examining the causes of conflicting
political emotions, and exploring the resolution of and consequences
of it in the context of American political behavior.
Patrick R. Miller, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
millerpr@email.unc.edu
Paper Elite Polarization, Partisan Ambivalence, and a Preference for
Divided Government
We demonstrate that elite polarization exerts a non-linear and
conditional influence on ambivalence toward the political parties. In
turn, partisan ambivalence is among the strongest determinants of
preferences for divided vs. unified government.
Christopher Johnston, Stony Brook University
johncd1@gmail.com
Howard Lavine, Stony Brook University
hlavine@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Marco Steenbergen, University of Bern
marco.steenbergen@ipw.unibe.ch
David Perkins, Brook University
franciscoperkins@hotmail.edu
Paper Disentangling Subjective and Objective Ambivalence
This paper explores the relationship between subjective and
objective ambivalence. We examine why this relationship differs by
issue, the relationship between ambivalence and attitude strength,
and the role of personality in ambivalence.
Neil T. Baer, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
nbaer2@uiuc.edu
Elizabeth Popp, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
epopp2@uiuc.edu
Disc. David Doherty, University of Colorado, Boulder
dohertyd@colorado.edu
23-10 MODELING CAMPAIGN BEHAVIOR
Room Suite 13-250 on the 13th Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Keith L. Dougherty, University of Georgia
dougherk@uga.edu
Paper The Pronouncements of Paranoid Politicians
Known impossibility results have shown that not announcing
policy can never be an equilibrium in political contests. This paper
overcomes these impossibility results. The predictions of the model
are consistent with data on U.S. Senate races.
Guido Cataife, Washington University, St. Louis
gcataife@artsci.wustl.edu
Paper The Complexity of Presidential Primaries
An agent based model of presidential primaries, viewing them as a
complex adaptive system.
Robi Ragan, University of Georgia
robi.ragan@gmail.com
Paul-Henri Gurian, University of Georgia
phgurian@uga.edu
Paper
Disc.
Timing is Everything: A Dynamic Model of Candidate Entry
This paper presents a model of a candidate entry into electoral
contests. The model accounts both for popular candidates who opt
not to enter a race and sure losers who opt into elections.
Daniel B. Magleby, University of Michigan
dmagleby@umich.edu
Jonathan Wand, Stanford University
wand@stanford.edu
23-15 LEGISLATIVE CAMPAIGNS
Room PDR 7 on the 3rd Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Joy K. Langston, CIDE, Mexico City
joy.langston@cide.edu
Paper The Fifth Source and the Gift Horse: Public Money and PACs
in Four State Elections
I find evidence that while PACs remain key players in partiallyfunded
state elections, full funding such as that in Arizona and
Maine holds the promise to attenuate the effect of PAC money on
candidates’ general election vote share.
Michael G. Miller, Cornell University
mgm44@cornell.edu
Paper
Paper
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Issue Ownership and Presidential Policy's Effect on
Congressional Elections
Attempts to combine Petrocik (1996) issue ownership theory with
current campaign research studies literature (Adams and Merrill
2003, Kollman, Miller and Page 1998, etc.) in an attempt to gain
new leverage on the question of midterm referrenda.
Jared Kahanek, University of North Texas
jek0074@unt.edu
Congressional Campaigns, Competitiveness and Political
Attitudes
This presentation examines the connection between the
competitiveness of Congressional campaigns and trends in
individually expressed levels of political trust and external efficacy
in the United States.
August Ruckdeschel, University of Colorado, Boulder
august.ruckdeschel@colorado.edu
Persuasion vs. Mobilization: Assessing the Impact of Campaign
Spending
This paper aims at providing an empirical assessment of persuasive
and mobilization effects. Taking advantage of the French electoral
system (two rounds), we estimate the marginal effect of campaign
spending on swinging voters and advocating voters.
Abel François, University of Strasbourg
abel.francois@urs.u-strasbg.fr
Martial Foucault, University of Montreal
martial.foucault@umontreal.ca
Reassessing the Impact of Campaign Expenditures in
Legislative Elections
This paper challenges the conventional wisdom about the
significance of money in legislative elections. When using a
dichotomous win/loss measure for election outcomes, the impact of
expenditures is dwarfed by that of incumbency.
Nicholas R. Seabrook, University at Buffalo, SUNY
seabrook@buffalo.edu
Allan J. Cigler, University of Kansas
acigler@ku.edu
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