2007 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Saddam Hussein, and that of United States President George W.
Bush.
Paper A Study of the Relationship Between Follower's Personality
and Leadership Ratings of George W. Bush
Charles R. Salter, Schreiner University
Overview: This research was designed to link traits from the 5factor
model of personality (the Big 5) by utilizing the
International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), to a followers’
perception of the leadership style of George W. Bush, based on
Bass & Avolio.
Paper Are Patriots Really More Patriotic than their Anti-patriotic
Rivals?
Eyal Lewin, University of Haifa, Israel
Overview: The analyses of interviews with soldiers and combat
veterans as well as the testimonies of pacifists and peace activists
enables us to study what patriotism is all about.
Paper An Esoteric Social Movement: The Case of Neoconservatism
Caleb T. Goltz, University of Minnesota
Overview: Handling Neoconservatism as a unique social
movement, I argue that an historical approach has greater
explanatory power than behaviorist methods in analyzing covert
strategies for manipulating the hegemony of cloudy, discourseparalyzing
language.
Disc. Kathleen M. Dowley, SUNY, New Paltz
7-11 THE EU CONSTITUTION AND ITS AFTERMATH
Room Sandburg 6, 7 th Floor, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair Hartmut Lenz, Oxford University
Paper The Importance of Actor Cleavages in Negotiating the
European Constitution
Madeleine O. Hosli, Leiden University
Christine Arnold, Universiteit Maastricht
Overview: This paper aims to explore government preferences,
cleavages and patterns of coalition-formation among a variety of
actors in the bargaining process on the European Constitution,
across the range of the current twenty-five European Union (EU)
member states.
Paper Analyzing Member States’ Integration Preference Since
Amsterdam
Daniel Finke, German University of Administrative Science
Overview: European Integration reveals two conflicts: I. The
distribution of power among member states. II. The distribution of
power between the domestic and the European level. The
empirical test combines three unique data sets in one item
response model.
Paper The Dutch No to the EU Constitution: Issue Voting, Proxies
and the Campaign
Andreas Schuck, University of Amsterdam
Overview: This multi-method study investigates vote choice in the
Dutch EU Constitution referendum. Alternative explanations for a
No vote are tested and the impact of the campaign on final vote
choice is assessed.
Paper European Constitution and European Identity
Ana P. Tostes, Michigan State University
Overview: This paper analyze why the identity matters in the
European Union and the relationship between the crisis of the
Constitution and the other old crisis.
Disc. Rasmus L. Nielsen, University of Southern Denmark
8-11 INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN LATIN AMERICA
Room Sandburg 5, 7 th Floor, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair Laura Wills-Otero, University of Pittsburgh
Paper Economic Growth and Institutions: The Influence of External
Actors
David Arellano Gault, Teaching and Research in the Social
Sciences (CIDE)
Walter Lepore,
Overview: This paper incorporates a relevant variable into the
analysis of the relationship between democracy and economic
growth in Latin America: power relationships between dominant
local groups and the economic and political elites of developed
countries.
Page | 198
Paper Convergence or Divergence: Institutional and Policy Change
in the Dominican Social Sector
Ken E. Mitchell, Monmouth University
Overview: This paper discusses institutional and policy changes in
the Dominican Republic. It focuses on data from the social sector
and tries to test whether a convergence or a divergence approach
to institutional change is most appropriate.
Paper Institutions and Ideas: Explaining Political Change in Latin
America
Pedro J. Sanoja, Temple University
Overview: In this paper I build on the literature on ideas and the
limits of institutions in explanatory accounts of change. I focus on
Venezuela and use this case to develop an analytic framework that
I apply to three other Latin American cases.
Paper Electoral Systems in Latin America: The Adoption of PR
Systems During the 20th Century
Laura Wills-Otero, University of Pittsburgh
Overview: What political conditions explain a country’s
movement from a restrictive majoritarian electoral system to one
that encourages competition among different political parties, i.e.,
a proportional representation (PR) system?
Disc. Melissa Scheier, Georgetown College
9-9 STUDYING SOCIAL-CAPITAL IN ASIA
Room Sandburg 4, 7 th Floor, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair Toru Oga, Ibaraki University
Paper Not Just a Western Phenomenon? Testing the Impact of Social
Capital in Asia
Willy Jou, University of California, Irvine
Overview: Studies on the impact of social capital on the quality of
democracy have mostly focused on western societies. Using
survey data, this paper seeks to assess the impact of interpersonal
trust and voluntary participation on democratic values in Asia.
Paper “The Developmental State in Retreat”: Comparative Civil
Society Study in East Asia
Lichao He, University of Georgia
Overview: The paper conducts a comparative study on the boom
of the NGO sectors in three major East Asian countries: China,
Japan and South Korea. It argues that civil societies in East Asia
develops as a result of the restructuring of the developmentalist
state.
Paper The Effect of Civic Associationalism on Democratic Attitudes
Among the Korean Mass Public
Rollin F. Tusalem, University of Missouri, Columbia
Doh C. Shin, University of Missouri, Columbia
Overview: Our paper analyzes the sources of civic
associationalism among the Korean public using survery data .Our
findings indicate that traditional forms of civic membership
enhance feelings of interpersonal trust and tolerance for outside
political groups.
Disc. Toru Oga, Ibaraki University
13-11 INSTITUTIONS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
IN POST-COMMUNIST COUNTRIES
Room Parlor H, 6 th Floor, Sat at 8:00 am
Chair Sarah E. Wilson, Ohio State University
Paper Measuring Judicial Performance in Former Communist
Countries of Eastern Europe
Joseph L. Staats, Valdosta State University
Marc G. Pufong, Valdosta State University
Overview: This paper discusses the measurement of judicial
performance in ten former Communist countries of Eastern
Europe for 1996-97 and 2006-07 using results obtained from a
survey administered by the authors to panels of legal experts in
each such country.
Paper Changing the Rules: The Two Electoral Transitions in Russia
Igor Logvinenko, Villanova University
Overview: What motivates political actors to change the rules of
the game they are already winning? Recent drastic modification of
the electoral rules in Russia is a case of institutions limiting actors
even when competition is restricted.