2007 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

41-13 FEDERAL JUDICIAL SELECTION: DEATHS,
DEPARTURES, AND NEW BLOOD
Room PDR 6, 3 rd Floor, Sat at 4:25 pm
Chair Pamela C. Corley, Vanderbilt University
Paper Politicized Departure from the United States Supreme Court,
1789-2006
James Lindgren, Northwestern University
Ross M. Stolzenberg, University of Chicago
Overview: The odds of a Supreme Court justice retiring in the first
two years of a president of the same party are about 2.6 times the
odds of retiring late in the term of a president of the opposing
party. Dying in office shows roughly the opposite pattern.
Paper Departures from the Court: The Importance of the Political
Landscape
Kjersten R. Nelson, University of Minnesota
Eve M. Ringsmuth, University of Minnesota
Overview: The authors use ideological distance measures to re-test
the hypothesis that justices use strategic political considerations
when deciding whether to leave the Court.
Paper Assessing Changes in State Representation on the U.S. Courts
of Appeals
Kevin M. Scott, Congressional Research Service
R. Sam Garrett, Congressional Research Service
Overview: We investigate and analyze changes in state
representation of circuit court judges confirmed since 1891 in
order to test hypotheses about factors that influence changes in
state representation.
Paper A Competing Risks Model of Exits from the U.S. Courts of
Appeals, 1954-2004
Richard L. Vining, Emory University
Overview: This paper employs a competing risks model to
examine departures from the U.S. Courts of Appeals from 1954-
2004. The impact of reforms to retirement statutes is studied along
with political, personal, and institutional factors affecting
departures.
Disc. Christine L. Nemacheck, College of William & Mary
Pamela C. Corley, Vanderbilt University
41-24 DECISION MAKING ON TRIAL COURTS
Room Parlor E, 6 th Floor, Sat at 4:25 pm
Chair Jolly A. Emrey, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
Paper Impact of Selection System on Sentencing Decisions in Felony
Trial Courts
Nathan A. Jones, University of Virginia
Overview: Modeling “justice” as unexplained variation, this paper
tests the claim that elections place justice “at risk” using a
heteroskedastic regression model to predict felony sentence length
and error terms across states with different selection systems.
Paper The Impact of Motivations on Judicial Role Conceptions and
Behavior
Barsha L. Mount, Charleston Southern University
Overview: This paper examines the relative influence of the
institutional norms and structures of state trial courts and the
personal motivations of judges on their role conceptions and
behavior.
Paper Contextualizing the Law: Sex Assault Cases and Trial Court
Decision-Making
Megan A. Greening, University of North Texas
Overview: This study examines sexual assault cases and trial court
decision-making in Dallas County 1999-2005. I test legal and
extra-legal factors to determine if they influence sentencing
decisions and discuss the subsequent policy impact of such
decisions.
Paper What Are They Thinking?: Federal Judges Thoughts on
Redistricting
Mark J. McKenzie, University of Texas, Austin
Overview: This study in judicial behavior in redistricting relies on
in depth interviews and a judicial survey of sitting federal judges.
This NSF funded study examines the nature of partisanship and
other factors in redistricting decisions.
Page | 258
Paper Unemployment, Politics, and the Risk of Execution in the U.S.
States
Isaac Unah, National Science Foundation
Overview: Do Economic Conditions explain execution risk of
deathrow inmates in the American States? I argue that activity on
deathrow reflects economic conditions in the states and that these
economic effects are mediated by gubernatorial politics.
Disc. Charles A. Smith, University of Miami
Jolly A. Emrey, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
44-11 THE POLITICS OF POLICY DIFFUSION I (Cosponsored
with Public Policy, see 46-17)
Room Parlor C, 6 th Floor, Sat at 4:25 pm
Chair Ronald E. Weber, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Paper When the Smoke Clears: The Diffusion of Successful Youth
Access Antismoking Policies
Craig Volden, Ohio State University
Charles R. Shipan, University of Michigan
Overview: This paper examines state antismoking policies to
address youth access to tobacco. We analyze whether the youth
access policies that most effectively reduce teenage smoking
spread more quickly and more completely across the states than do
less effective.
Paper Local Governments and Policy Diffusion: Building State
Capacity
Kathleen Hale, Auburn University
Overview: The influence of local government innovation on
subsequent state innovation in criminal justice reform is tested by
cross-sectional time series analysis using data from local drug
court programs across the fifty states from 1989 through 2005.
Paper Testing the Emulation of Success Hypothesis in Criminal
Justice Policy
Christopher Olds, Texas A&M University
Overview: Research on state policy diffusion for too long has
focused on geographical proximity between states to explain
policy adoption. This project looks into the possibility that states
emulate other states only when policies achieve desired outcomes.
Paper Policy Diffusion and Learning in Federal States: Evidence
from Switzerland
Fabrizio Gilardi, University of Lausanne
Katharina Fueglister, University of Lausanne
Overview: This paper studies the diffusion of health insurance
subsidy policies across the 26 Swiss cantons between 1996 and
2005. It examines whether policy makers learn from policy or
political outcomes, and whether the impact of learning varies over
time.
Disc. Ronald E. Weber, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Jeremy L. Hall, University of Alabama, Birmingham
45-7 REINVENTING/RESTRUCTURING MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT
Room Burnham 4,7 th Floor, Sat at 4:25 pm
Chair J. Edwin Benton, Universitiy of South Florida
Paper Put Up or Shut Up: City Council Response to Efforts to
Reinvent Government
Timothy B. Krebs, University of New Mexico
John P. Pelissero, Loyola University, Chicago
Overview: Despite the popularity of reinventing government at the
local level, we know little about it from an empirical standpoint.
In this research we analyze city council responses to managers’
efforts to reinvent city government through the budgetary process .
Paper Discovering the Ties that Bind: A Search for Connections
Between Municipal Governmental Forms and Expenditure
Decisions
Charles L. Sampson, University of Missouri
Overview: This study queries whether forms of municipal
government are significant to understanding municipal
expenditure decisions and the extent to which institutional theory
aids that explanation.