2006 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

PaperPaperDisc.Policy Windows, Attention Structures, and Responsivenessin Nonprofit Organizations: A Stakeholder SalienceApproachChao Guo, Arizona State UniversityOverview: This study introduces a stakeholder salienceapproach to responsiveness in nonprofit organizations, andcontends that managers prioritize competing stakeholder claimsbased on their salience levelsExplaining Administrative Responsiveness to Citizens:Environment, Capacity, and CultureKaifeng Yang, Florida State UniversitySanjay Pandey, University of KansasOverview: TBAMatthew Dull, University of Wisconsin-Madison43-203 INFORMAL ROUNDTABLE: FARMING ITOUT: SUBCONTRACTING PUBLICADMINISTRATIONRoom TBA, Thur 3:45 pmPresenter Is State-Centered Public Administration Dead in the UnitedStates?Uday C. Desai, Southern Illinois University, CarbondaleKeith Snavely, Southern Illinois University, CarbondaleOverview: The state is receding and the private sectorexpanding into former public space. Market-like, private goodexchanges are supplanting citizen-state, public good exchanges.In such a world state-centered public administration is muchless relevant.Presenter Examining Competition in Social Service Contracting: Caseof FloridaScott J. Lamothe, University of Nebraska, LincolnMeeyoung S. Lamothe, University of Nebraska, OmahaOverview: By examining human services in Florida, the authorsconduct an in-depth analysis of competition in social servicescontracting, focusing on competitiveness in the bidding process;provider consolidation; and provider performance.43-204 INFORMAL ROUNDTABLE: TROLLS,KILLERS, & RESEARCH: ACCESSINGPUBLIC DATA IN AN AGE OF TERRORRoom TBA, Thur 3:45 pmPresenter Dallas S. Drake, Center for Homicide ResearchOverview: This paper explores the difficulty in accessingcommon public data for homicide research. The unique need forsuch access will be examined along with ramifications of notdoing so.44-4 INSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONSRoomChairPaperPaperPaperTBA, Thur 3:45 pmRobert Mickey, University of Michigan, Ann ArborMoney from Strangers: Minority Moneylenders and theMitigation of RiskCatherine S. M. Duggan, Stanford UniversityOverview: What accounts for the remarkable success ofmoneylenders from minority groups? I argue that the dynamicsof these groups allowed them to lend at low risk, and test thisusing evidence from the Jews in Medieval England and theIndians in Uganda.De-Restricting Democracy in the United States and SouthAfricaShamira M. Gelbman, University of VirginiaOverview: Based on a paired comparison of the United Statesand South Africa, I argue that a coalition between suffragistsocial movements and working class organizations inducespolitical elites to remove barriers to non-racially restricteddemocracy.Why Are the Western States So Big? Interests, Institutions,and Entrepreneurship in American Political Expansion,1860-1900Matthew Glassman, Yale UniversityOverview: This paper examines the politics of constructing newstates in the western United States in the 19th century. It isPaperDisc.animated by a simple question: why are the western states sobig?Regulating Layoffs: The Case of U.S. Plant-ClosingLegislationJune Park, University of PittsburghOverview: Why was the 1988 Worker Adjustment andRetraining Notification Act enacted in the year it was enacted?It was crucial that most state courts recognized the common-lawexceptions to the employment at will during the 1980s.Robert Mickey, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor47-6 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES INEVANGELICAL POLITICSRoomChairPaperPaperPaperPaperPaperDisc.TBA, Thur 3:45 pmDaniel Hofrenning, St. Olaf CollegeThe Myth of the Christian Right: Analysis of GroupMember and Political ParticipationMatthew K. DeSantis, University of FloridaOverview: The following paper challenges the traditional beliefsthat followers of the Christian Right are highly active politicalparticipants. Data analysis shows low levels of groupmembership and political participation amongst evangelicalProtestants.The Political Participation of the Religious Right: Trendsand ConsequencesPatrick R. Miller, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillOverview: This paper examines trends in the politicalparticipation of Christian Conservatives and their attitudestowards government. The implications of the growth of thereligious right for the quality of liberal democracy areconsidered.The Political Implications of Elite Framing of PremillennialEschatologyPaula N. Booke, University of ChicagoOverview: This paper examines the relationship in elitediscourse between premillennial theology and antiglobalization,anti-government regulation, anti-secularizationand pro-Israel policiesApples and Oranges: Methodological Issues in Determiningthe Population of the Christian RightMatthew K. DeSantis, University of FloridaMarija Anna Bekafigo, University of GeorgiaOverview: The paper addresses methodological issues whenmeasuring the Christian Right population in individual levelsurveys. The paper demonstrates previous methodologicalshortcomings and highlights new advances, which will enablemore precise measurement.Saving Hearts, Influencing Politics: Evangelizing forPolitical ChangeAndra Gillespie, Emory UniversityOverview: Using ethnographic data collected before and duringevangelical crusades in Connecticut and Washington, DC in2001 and 2005, this paper shows how local organizers channeltheir social and political concerns into helping plan evangelisticcrusades.Laura R. Olson, Clemson UniversityGeoffrey C. Layman, University of Maryland50-1 PLATONIC POLITICSRoomChairPaperPaperTBA, Thur 3:45 pmMatthew J. Franck, Radford UniversitySocrates' Silence in Plato's CleitophonMartin J. Plax, Cleveland State UniversityOverview: Why, in the Cleitophon, did Socrates remain silentafter Cleitophon demonstrated the limits of Socraticexhortation? This paper argues Cleitophon's praise ofThrasymachus is advice on how Socrates should speak to jurorsin his own trial.The Immortality of the Soul and the Origin of the Cosmos inPlato's PHAEDOAnn Ward, University of ReginaOverview: In Plato's PHAEDO, Socrates shows that politicalphilosophy necessarily leads to natural science. Yet, Socrates'126