2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-8:00 am
38-5 RELIGION AND PARTIES
Room UEH 403 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair David M. Paul, Ohio State University, Newark
paul.68@osu.edu
Paper The Evolution and Electoral Impact of White Evangelicals'
Party Images
This paper discusses the evolution of the political party images held
by white evangelical Protestants, and examines how these images
have affected evangelicals' electoral behavior.
Mark D. Brewer, University of Maine
mark.brewer@umit.maine.edu
Paper Interest Group Coalitions and the U.S. Supreme Court’s
Church-State Docket
This paper investigates the extent to which conservative Christian
interest groups participated in coalitions when filing amicus curiae
briefs in church-state cases granted certiorari by the U.S. Supreme
Court from 1986-2005.
Traci L. Nelson, University of Pittsburgh
tln10@pitt.edu
Paper What the Party Says: The Effects of Religious Rhetoric on the
Electorate
Scholars have argued that the Republican Party has simply given
the "Christian Right" rhetorical cues and promises. The purpose of
the paper focuses on the impact that even rhetoric, minus action, can
have the public perception of parties.
Matthew Kristopher DeSantis, University of Texas, El Paso
mkdesantis@utep.edu
Paper Ethnic and Religious Interest Group Organizing: Domestic and
Foreign Politics
This study examines how and why some ethnic and religious groups
mobilize for both domestic and foreign policy issues.
Renan Levine, University of Toronto
renan.levine@utoronto.ca
Disc. David M. Paul, Ohio State University, Newark
paul.68@osu.edu
40-7 PARTY POWER: COMPARATIVE AND
HISTORICAL APPROACHES
Room Salon 6 on the 3rd Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Linda L. Fowler, Dartmouth College
Linda.L.Fowler@Dartmouth.EDU
Paper The Rise of Party in the House of Commons, 1841 to 1901
In an analysis of over half a million MP votes of legislative
divisions from the House of Commons in the nineteenth century, I
examine the timing and causes of the rise of party government.
Andrew Reeves, Harvard University
reeves@fas.harvard.edu
Paper Majorities and Deference in American State Legislatures
We compare the treatment of special bills to that of general local
bills in 13 state legislatures in the period 1880-2000, testing the
hypothesis that the party and factional identity of the introducer
matters for some bills but not all.
Gerald Gamm, University of Rochester
grgm@mail.rochester.edu
Thad Kousser, University of California, San Diego
tkousser@weber.ucsd.edu
Paper Top Down or Bottom Up Party Shifts Over Chinese
Exclusion,1879-1902
I explore the two parties’ position shifts over Chinese exclusion in
the Gilded Age. I argue that party rank-and-file members, not the
party leadership, are often in the driver’s seat in defining the party’s
position
Jungkun Seo, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
SEOJ@UNCW.EDU
Paper
Disc.
Caucuses, Constituents, and Congressional Representation
This paper examines congressional caucuses in the House and
explains the number and type of caucuses to which legislators
belong. I find that legislators belong to caucuses as a way to
represent constituents' interests beyond the committee system.
Kristina Miler, University of Illinois
kmiler@uiuc.edu
Ivy Hamerly, Baylor University
Ivy_Hamerly@baylor.edu
Linda L. Fowler, Dartmouth College
Linda.L.Fowler@Dartmouth.EDU
40-20 POLICYMAKING IN LEGISLATURES
Room PDR 7 on the 3rd Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Andrew J. Taylor, North Carolina State University
andrew_taylor@ncsu.edu
Paper Budget Incrementalism: Small Aggregation, Big Changes
This paper questions the depiction of the budget as incremental,
if by that we mean characterized by small changes. Using new
budgetary data, we find that nearly half of budgetary changes are
greater than 10%, hardly a preponderance of small changes.
Sarah E. Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara
sanderson@bren.ucsb.edu
Laurel Harbridge, Stanford University
harbridg@stanford.edu
Paper Effects of Changes in Congress on Higher Education Policy,
1973-2007
This paper examines shifts in Congressional leadership, party
dominance, and interest group representation in order to explain
why policymakers in recent decades have ceased to expand access
to higher education as they had in the mid-20th century.
Suzanne Mettler, Cornell University
suzanne.mettler@cornell.edu
Paper Across the Border: Diagnosing the Prescription Drug
Importation Agenda
This preliminary research examines the congressional agenda of
pharmaceutical regulation.
Katie R. Stores, West Virginia University
kstores_05@yahoo.com
Jeffrey S. Worsham, West Virginia University
jworsham@wvu.edu
Paper Congressional Preference Formation and Gun Control: The
Brady Roll Calls
This paper investigates congressional preference formation over
gun control policies, availing itself of the natural experiment of
redistricting between the 102nd and 103rd Congresses to test the
determinants of legislative voting on the Brady bills.
Meredith A. Levine, Yale University
meredith.levine@yale.edu
Karina Cendon Boveda, Yale University
karina.cendonboveda@yale.edu
Kang Yi, Yale University
yi.kang@yale.edu
Kyohei Yamada, Yale University
kyohei.yamada@yale.edu
Disc. Andrew J. Taylor, North Carolina State University
andrew_taylor@ncsu.edu
Cecilia Testa, Royal Holloway University of London
cecilia.testa@rhul.ac.uk
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