2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-8:00 am
10-3 GOVERNANCE AND STATE CAPABILITIES IN
AFRICA
Room UEH 405 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Osaore Aideyan, St. Lawrence University
oaideyan@stlawu.edu
Paper Democracy and Party Systems in African Insular Microstates
The African insular microstates show us in the last years an
increasing tendency to the stability of their democratic institutions.
Four of the five African insular microstates are at the top of the
African countries' ranking of better governance.
Jose Adrian Garcia-Rojas, University of La Laguna
jagrro@ull.es
Jesus F. Hernandez, University of La Laguna
jfhdez@ull.es
Paper Taxes, Institutions and Governance: Evidence from Colonial
Nigeria
I look at a natural experiment in Nigeria where neighboring villages
were subject to very different colonial institutions. I show that the
legacies lead to different levels of government capacity to deliver
basic services (e.g vaccines) today.
Daniel Berger, New York University
db1299@nyu.edu
Paper State Power and Social Forces in Sub-Saharan Africa
This project explores cooperating and competing social forces in
Sub-Sahara African states. By evaluating state strength relatively, I
analyze the role and success of different political actors within their
particular environments.
Ryan Gibb, University of Kansas
gibb.ryan@gmail.com
Paper Social Representations, Common World and Democratic
Potentiality in the Towns of West Africa (Case Study in Burkina
Faso)
In this paper I suggest a method and a theoretical point of view to
study the social and political change in the secondary cities of West
Africa and to identify the democratic potential in relation with the
urban process.
Mathieu Hilgers, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgique
hilgers@anso.ucl.ac.be
Disc. Julius O. Adekunle, Monmouth University
jadekunl@monmouth.edu
13-5 GRAFT OR GREASE CAUSES AND
CONSEQUENCES OF CORRUPTION IN CHINA AND
POST-COMMUNIST STATES
Room UEH 413 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Petia Kostadinova, University of Florida
petiak@ces.ufl.edu
Paper The Institutional Determinants of Anticorruption in China:
Evidences From Revealed Corruption Cases Across Provinces
This paper studies the regional variances of anti-corruption in
China. We hypothesize that revealed corruption cases are affected
by the local representation in the center, the strength of insiders and
political turnover of the provincial leadership.
Jiangnan Zhu, Northwestern University
zhujiangnan@northwestern.edu
Guang Zhang, Nankai University
gzhang85@nankai.edu.cn
Paper Corruption Levels and Campaign Finance Laws in Post-
Communist States
In this paper we examine to what degree restrictive campaign
finance systems fuel corruption in Post-communist states.
Joseph W. Robbins, Texas Tech University
joseph.w.robbins@ttu.edu
Eric Ashley Booth, Texas Tech University
eric.a.booth@ttu.edu
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Effects of Economic Openness on Corruption: Firm-level
Survey Evidence
A substantial literature argues that international openness should
lower corruption. Data from firm-level surveys suggest that trade
activity may actually increase firms' bribe-paying behavior, but that
foreign ownership has little effect.
Celeste Beesley, University of California, San Diego
craymond@ucsd.edu
Beyond Clientilism: The Mishu/Shouzhang Relationship in
Chinese Politics
This article examines the mishu/shouzhang (personal secretary/
boss) relationship as an institution in contemporary Chinese politics
in the context of the comparative politics literature on patronclientilism.
Xia Li Lollar, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
lollarx@uww.edu
Anne Wing Hamilton, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
hamiltoa@uww.edu
Petia Kostadinova, University of Florida
petiak@ces.ufl.edu
14-5 COMPETITION AND DIFFUSION IN THE GLOBAL
ECONOMY
Room Salon 1 on the 3rd Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Rene Lindsteadt, SUNY, Stony Brook
rene.lindstaedt@stonybrook.edu
Paper Potential Ambiguities in a Directed Dyad Approach to State
Policy Emulation
In this paper I discuss circumstances under which the dyadic model
of policy diffusion can produce misleading estimates in favor of
policy emulation.
Frederick J. Boehmke, University of Iowa
frederick-boehmke@uiowa.edu
Paper Learning from What The Diffusion of Labor Market Reforms
in OECD Countries
This paper examines this diffusion by looking at the evolution of
"active" and "passive" labor market policies in OECD countries
during the past quarter of century.
Fabrizio Gilardi, Harvard University
fgilardi@wcfia.harvard.edu
Paper The Dissemination of Information Within and Across Groups:
An Application to Tax Policy Diffusion
In this paper, we develop a model of diffusion that distinguishes
between intra- and inter-group diffusion of tax policies.
Rene Lindstaedt, SUNY, Stony Brook
rene.lindstaedt@stonybrook.edu
Nathan M. Jensen, Washington University, St. Louis
njensen@wustl.edu
Paper
Disc.
Federalism, Privatization, and Innovation: The Diffusion of
Foster Care Policies across U.S. Counties
This paper links diffusion and privatization in a study of foster care
policy adoptions at the local county level.
Craig Volden, Ohio State University
volden.2@polisci.osu.edu
Vanessa Bouche, Ohio State University
Universitybouche.1@polisci.osu.edu
Christian Bjørnskov, Aarhus University
chbj@asb.dk
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