2007 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Paper A Study of Chinese Peasants’ Voting Behavior in Village
Elections
Xinsong Wang, Georgia State University
Overview: This paper uses a nationwide survey collected in 2005
to examine the effects of socioeconomic, subjective, and
institutional factors on Chinese peasants’ voting behavior.
Disc. Lawrence C. Reardon, University of New Hampshire
13-7 POST-COMMUNIST STATE CAPACITY AND
INSTITUTIONS
Room Sandburg 2, 7 th Floor, Sat at 9:50 am
Chair Dinissa S. Duvanova, Ohio State University
Paper The Bureaucracy and Social Insurance in Post-Communist
Countries
Sarah E. Wilson, Ohio State University
Overview: Using interviews, statistical data, and secondary
sources from field research in 2006, I argue that bureaucratic
autonomy and discretion, which do not coincide, are determining
factors in healthcare and pension reform in the Russian
Federation.
Paper The Black Box of the Past: Postcommunist Governance,
Legacies and Mechanisms
Cristina Corduneanu-Huci, Duke University
Lenka Siroky, Duke University
Overview: The paper attempts to investigate the impact of
institutional resilience (developmental legacies) and institutional
change (civil service reform) on the quality and variance of
current governance and economic performance in the postcommunist
region.
Paper Civil Service Reform in Southeastern Europe: The Impact of
the EU Montoring Process
Katja Michalak, Ohio State University
Overview: During the last two decades political, social and
economic changes have occurred in Eastern Europe. Many states
have attempted to reform their civil service bureaucracies, but we
know little about the determinants of success of such reform.
Paper Kareiski: The Failed Political Engineers in the North Korean
State-Building
Joongho Kim, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Overview: This research is to better understand the characteristics
of North Korea by reviewing the memoirs of the eighty Korean
Russians (kareiski) who actively participated in the North Korean
state-building during the 1940s and 1950s.
Paper Core Executive Reform and its Impact on Sectoral Reforms:
The Cases of Russia and Poland
S. Mohsin Hashim, Muhlenber College
Overview: The paper seeks to evaluate the role of core executive
reform in implementing “second generation” sectoral reforms in
post-communist Russia and Poland. The paper will focus on two
areas of sectoral reforms - namely housing and pension.
Disc. George A. Vassilev, University of Chicago
14-17 ISSUES IN MONETARY POLITICS (Co-sponsored
with Economic Policy, see 48-6)
Room Montrose 7, 7 th Floor, Sat at 9:50 am
Chair Daniela Campello, University of California, Los Angeles
Paper Democracy and Sovereign Default Risk in International
Credit Markets
Yong Kyun Kim, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Overview: The paper presents and tests a dynamic model of
sovereign default taking into account both a leader's time horizon
and distributional effects of default within an economy.
Paper Financial Market Crises and the Political Costs of Capital
Controls
Thomas B. Pepinsky, Yale University
Overview: Using data from across the developing world, this
paper shows that while capital controls can hasten economic
recovery during financial sector crises, such barriers also decrease
the likelihood of democratic transitions during these crises.
Paper Electoral Rules and Central Bank Independence in
Presidential Systems
Gyung-Ho Jeong, Washington University, St. Louis
Overview: Party-centered electoral rules in presidential systems
tend to generate high levels of bureaucratic discretion, because
they reduce legislators' incentive and ability to develop legislative
professionalism and a strong legislative committee system.
Paper Conflicting Mandates: Central Banks, Regulation, and
Inflation
David A. Singer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mark S. Copelovitch, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Overview: Central banks that are also responsible for bank
regulation will be more sensitive to the profitability and stability
of the banking sector, and therefore less likely to alter interest
rates solely on the basis of price stability objectives.
Paper Doing the Impossible: Rethinking the Unholy Trinity and the
Effects of Capital Mobility
David Steinberg, Northwestern University
Overview: Conventional wisdom holds that it is impossible for
states to simultaneously have mobile capital, currency pegs and
independent monetary policy. I show that this conclusion is not
supported by either logic or evidence.
Disc. Steven R. Hall, Ball State University
15-11 THE DOMESTIC IMPACTS OF INTERNATIONAL
TRADE AND FINANCE
Room Salon 5, 3 rd Floor, Sat at 9:50 am
Chair Katri K. Sieberg, Binghamton University
Paper International Trade and Domestic Political Elites in
Developing Countries
Antonio C. Pedro, Jr., Washington University, St. Louis
Overview: This paper models political elites as economic actors,
and responds to two questions. How does international trade affect
the durability of political elites? How do political elites cope with
pressures exerted under increasing global trade?
Paper Domestic Institutions and Embedded Liberalism
Stacy Bondanella, University of Pittsburgh
Overview: This paper asks whether domestic institutions mediate
the effect of imports on welfare state spending. It is argued that
spending on policies aimed at offsetting the costs of increased
imports will be higher in systems with higher proportionality.
Paper A Study of Economic Integration and State Repression
Dona Roy, University of South Carolina
Overview: This paper investigates if the liberal proposition that of
economic interdependence leads to peaceful state behaviour
extends to domestic behaviour of the states.
Paper International Finance and Civil Conflict in Heterogeneous
Societies
Terrence L. Chapman, Emory University
Eric Reinhardt, Emory University
Overview: We examine a redistributive politics model with a
foreign finance component to demonstrate a link between
restrictions in finance and expropriation from a minority. We test
results on data on repression and civil conflict, correcting for
endogeneity.
Disc. Katri K. Sieberg, Binghamton University
16-13 SECRECY, UNCERTAINTY, AND STRATEGIC
AMBIGUITY
Room Salon 6, 3 rd Floor, Sat at 9:50 am
Chair Randall L. Schweller, Ohio State University
Paper Keeping Them Guessing: A Theory of Strategic Ambiguity
Brett V. Benson, Vanderbilt University
Emerson M. S. Niou, Duke University
Overview: International relations theory maintains that
commitments should be firm and transparent in order to be
credible. The paper demonstrate conditions under which
deliberate ambiguity can outperform traditional transparent
deterrence commitments.
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