2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Saturday, April 5-10:00 am
24-5 EVALUATING REPRESENTATION
Room Salon 9 on the 3rd Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Michael Steven Lewis-Beck, University of Iowa
michael-lewis-beck@uiowa.edu
Paper Substantive Minority Representation: Lending Protections in
the States
This paper models whether Black and Latino descriptive
representation in state legislatures increases substantive policy
representation in the area of fiscal policy, specifically the regulation
of predatory lending practices in the states.
William W. Franko, University of Iowa
william-franko@uiowa.edu
Paper Primary Systems and the General Election: Is There a
Relationship
Closed vs. open primaries affect the nature of the electorate
(Kaufman et. al. 2003). This paper addresses whether those
influences are carried over into the general election. Is the electorate
different in open as opposed to closed primary states
Gary W. Copeland, University of Oklahoma
copeland@ou.edu
Natalie M. Jackson, University of Oklahoma
nataliemjackson@ou.edu
Paper Representation and Heterogeneity: Whose Interests are
Represented
Using state legislative roll calls and constituency demographic data,
I employ scaling and dimensional techniques to assess how and
when legislative behavior reflects the districts' interests.
Jennifer Hayes Clark, University of Houston
jclark10@uh.edu
Paper Primaries and Polarization in the U.S. Senate
We exploit the presence of split senate delegations and the variation
in primary activity across states to examine whether primaries are
associated with polarization. We find little evidence for a correlation
between primaries and polarization.
Hirano Hirano, Columbia University
sh1455@hotmail.com
Paper Evaluating Representation
This paper presents a new way to evalaute the degree to which
legislators are beholden to the citizenry and thus overcomes
problems that inhibit meaningful interpretation of existing measures
and strategies.
Ben Bishin, University of California, Riverside
bishin@ucr.edu
David Park, George Washington University
david.chungpark@gmail.com
Disc. Elizabeth Maggie Penn, Harvard University
epenn@latte.harvard.edu
25-10 MUSLIMS AND PUBLIC OPINION
Room PDR 16 on the 5th Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Karam Dana, University of Washington
karam@u.washington.edu
Paper A Change in Attitudes Toward Muslims A Bayesian
Investigation of Pre and Post 9/11 Public Opinion
We apply Bayesian methods to mitigate methodological issues
associated with research on Muslims in the U.S. deriving priors
from pre 9/11 dataset, we update our estimates for the change of
Americans' attitudes toward Muslims with post 9/11 dataset.
Kerem Ozan Kalkan, University of Maryland, College Park
kkalkan@gvpt.umd.edu
Yu-Sung Su, Graduate Center, CUNY
ys463@columbia.edu
Paper
Disc.
Muslim Public Opinion: The Role of Religion in Politics
How do Muslim Americans think about religion in politics As the
fastest growing religious minority, Muslim American public opinion
in general has become a topic for discussion both in academia and
for the at-large public.
Matt A. Barreto, University of Washington
mbarreto@washington.edu
Dino Bozonelos, University of California, Riverside
dbozo001@ucr.edu
Natalie Masauoka, Duke University
natalie.masuoka@duke.edu
25-12 PUBLIC OPINION IN EUROPE
Room UEH 400 on the 4th Floor, Sat at 10:00 am
Chair Scott Matthews, Queen's University
scott.matthews@queensu.ca
Paper Evaluation Bias and Issue Ownership: Evidence from the
United Kingdom 1971-1997
Using time series analysis of British data (1971-1997) we reveal
that competence ratings predict support for governing parties but
partisanship predicts competence ratings of opposition parties. The
findings have important theoretical implications.
Jane Elizabeth Green, University of Manchester
jane.green@manchester.ac.uk
Will Jennings, London School of Economics
w.j.jennings@lse.ac.uk
Paper The Dynamics of Public Preferences and Policy in the UK,
1956-2006
This paper examines to what extent public preferences are translated
into government policy in the United Kingdom. Both the people and
policy are measured on the left-right dimension. A dynamic model
is used to analyze the causes of policy shifts.
Armen Hakhverdian, University of Oxford
armen.hakhverdian@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Paper Which Way is the Rich Way The Micro-Macro Paradox of EU
Accession
We empirically document and resolve a micro-macro "paradox"
in attitudes towards EU membership. Economically well-off
individuals were more likely to support EU membership, but overall
support was greater in economically less successful countries.
Joshua Aaron Tucker, New York University
joshua.tucker@nyu.edu
Alexander Herzog, New York University
alexander.herzog@nyu.edu
Paper Public Opinion on the Location of Dutch Parties on the Left-
Right Scale
Public opinion on party positions has been very similar among
Dutch voters for the last decades. Media has strengthened the public
opinion on party positions by consistently portraying the political
parties in left-or rightwing jargon.
Huib Pellikaan, Leiden University
pellikaan@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Annemarie Sophie Walter, Leiden University
a.s.walter@umail.leidenuniv.nl
Maria Elisabeth Eenkhoorn, Leiden University
m.e.eenkhoorn@umail.leidenuniv.nl
Disc. Scott Matthews, Queen's University
scott.matthews@queensu.ca
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